Bitter Revenge, Sweet Tragedy
by XxxLEVITYxxX
Summary: The team gets called on a case to Tampa, Florida. People are being brutaly tortured and having their throats slashed. But what happens when the BAU team becomes this UNSUBS next target? Reid-centric. THERE WILL BE TORTURE IN LATER CHAPTERS! Please R&R
1. Case

**Authors Note! **

**In case you haven't noticed, this will be Reid-centric. Why? Because I love to cause him pain of course! This takes place sometime during season six when Prentiss and Seaver are here. I love JJ but I thought it would be interesting to have Seaver's character in here. I tried to make the characters as close to what they usually are but hey, we arn't all Criminal Minds script writers. Oh, and this is my first FF so please be nice! **

**I don't own anything! But if I did... Also, this is un Beta'd and all mistakes are my own. **

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><p>Dr. Spencer Reid walked into the BAU bullpen in an annoyed daze. The electricity shut off in his apartment building in the middle of the night while he was sleeping so his alarm clock didn't go off. This caused him to oversleep by an hour. <em>Then<em> his coffee machine decided it would be a good day to break, making him more irritable than he already was. _Then_ the metro had rail work going on so he couldn't ride the train to work. _So _he had to walk the ten mile distance from him apartment building to work.

He had considered calling Morgan or someone to come and pick him up but then decided against it. Morgan would probably already be angry at him for being late and asking him to come and pick him up would do more harm than good.

So he finally made it to work. He made a quick trip to the coffee machine and then walked to his desk. He saw that Morgan and Emily weren't at their usual spots at their desks and he silently cursed himself.

He glanced up at the conference room window and saw the whole team already in there. He sighed and set his messenger bag down at his desk.

_Now or never, _he though bitterly. He quickly made his way up the steps and down the cat walk. He had hoped to silently slip into the room, unnoticed, and that life would go on. Yeah, like that would happen.

He walked into the conference room with his head down. _So far so good. Just a few more steps…._

"Nice of you to finally join us, Reid," Hotch said loudly.

"Uh, sorry," Reid said as he felt his cheeks warm, "My alarm clock didn't go off and-"

"Reid." Hotch cut him off. Reid looked up at his bosses face. Hotch didn't look angry; he actually looked slightly relieved. "I was joking."

"Oh." Reid said. His cheeks felt _really _hot now. He walked quickly over to his seat and ignored the amused look everyone was giving him.

Hotch cleared his throat and nodded his head at Garcia to continue the briefing.

"Anyway," Garcia began again, "We have three dead. Each of them were found with the throats slashed and with heavy amount of torture."

"One of them had seven fingers missing, signs of rape, and numerous lacerations that seem to be done by a whip," Morgan read from the file in front of him.

Garcia winced and nodded, "And that's not even the worst…." Garcia trailed off and everyone got quiet.

Rossi cleared his throat, "The victims?"

"Oh," Garcia said and clicked the little remote in her hand. A picture of a vibrant, smiling blonde filled the screen next to a picture of a mangled body that Reid assumed to be the remains of the beautiful girl.

Garcia cleared her throat before beginning, "Victim one was the beautiful Shannon Felder, 24, she was a college student studying to become a physical therapist for children." Garcia stopped and looked like she was about to say something but didn't.

Emily sensed her distress and read the rest of Shannon's report. "She was raped repeatedly, had signs of being electrocuted-" everyone winced, "had two toes missing, and…. It says here that her appendix was removed?" Prentiss looked up confused.

Reid cleared his throat, "He probably did the procedure while she was awake and fully aware. This type of surgery without narcotics would be… intensely painful."

"Well then," Garcia said and clicked the remote again and a photo of a buff red-headed man filled the screen along with a picture of something that looked like a hunk of meat, "Victim two was 32 year old lawyer named Jason Hoffman" Garcia made a point of looking anywhere beside the pictures on the screen.

"Says here both of his arms were removed, along with eleven teeth, his intestines were basically ripped right out of him with rusted boating hooks." Morgan interjected. Everyone at the table looked particularly green.

"It says that he had a combination of Morphine and Dilaudid in his system," Seaver said, speaking up for the first time. Everyone lapsed into an awkward silence and looked everywhere but Reid. They all knew about his past drug addiction. Well, except Rossi and Seaver who just sat there looking confused.

"So..." Rossi began, "why use the drugs? He didn't use then on the first victim."

Morgan was the first to recover. "Well, Hoffman is certainly stronger than the first victim. Maybe he used them to subdue them?"

Reid ran a hand through his hair, "Or maybe it was used as torture."

Everyone looked at him curiously. Reid swallowed and decided to elaborate, "Well, if Hoffman had a past addiction of some kind then injecting him with the drugs would be a very… painful kind of torture. More mentally than physically."

Everyone, minus Rossi and Seaver, looked at him sympathetically and dropped the subject. Well, everyone except Seaver who decided to ask, "How so?"

Morgan glared daggers at her, which she chose to ignored.

Reid shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "Well…" he cleared his throat, "when a person overcomes a drug addiction, they would do practically anything to stay clean. Overcoming it once is hard enough, but doing it twice in nearly impossible."

He paused thoughtfully for a moment and then added, "When a person becomes addicted to a drug twice, all they can think about is how they failed themselves and their self esteem level drops. So it is torture. Torture of the mind."

Seaver stared at him for a moment. Then Garcia cleared her throat and continued the briefing, "The third victim was 27 year old Faith Dooley." She clicked the remote again and the screen showed the picture of an exotic looking girl with bright pink hair and green eyes. "She was raped repeatedly, had seven fingers missing, and had a lot lacerations that seem to be done by a whip." She paused for a moment and then said sadly, "She was also pregnant."

"So where are we going, exactly?" Reid asked.

"Tampa, Florida." Rossi answered.

"Alright, everyone, get your go-bags. Wheels up in 30," Hotch said and left the room. Reid's team members slowly trickled out of the conference room but Reid remained seated.

Morgan noticed this and came over to the man he considered to be his little brother. "You okay, kid?" he asked and laid a hand on his shoulder. Reid nodded and said, "I just… have a bad feeling about this one."

Morgan nodded in understanding, "Yeah. But hey? At least we're going to Florida. Home of sunny skies, beaches, and let's not forget those sexy ladies in bikinis."

Reid gave a half-hearted laugh and followed Morgan out of the room.

If only he knew what awaits him in Florida.

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><p><strong>R-r-r-r-r-r-review! :D<strong>


	2. Headache

**Author's Note!**

**Sorry the beginning is boring. It shall get better soon! **

**I own nothing. This is not Beta'd so all mistakes are myown. Possible spoilers. Just a warning ;D**

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><p>"Okay, so this guy is obviously sadistic," Hotch said, "He enjoys torturing his victims and then dumping them like trash."<p>

The team was now reviewing the case on the jet. Seaver and Rossi sat at one side of the table while Morgan and Reid sat at the other. Emily had decided to lounge on the couch and Hotch stood to supervised it all.

"So we have a white male, between the ages of 20 and 40," Reid said.

"Well Shannon was last seen at the county fair. Jason was at the coffee shop he went to every day and Faith was at a party with her friends," Morgan said, "so this guy fits in. I say he's an average built, but strong enough to take down Jason. And drives a large SUV but not large enough to draw attention"

"None of the victims had defensive wounds so he most likely threatened them with a weapon," Rossi said.

Reid opened his mouth to add to that but was interrupted by a cheerful, "Hello my loves!"

Garcia's face appeared on the laptop that was resting on the table. "Well hello, beautiful," Morgan said in a flirty tone.

"What do you got, Garcia?" Hotch asked. Garcia brushed her hair back from her face and said, "Well, love, I can't find any apparent connection to our victims but I can tell you a little more about them. "

"Go ahead," Prentiss said.

"Well, Shannon Felder had a sparkly clean record. She grew up in New York but moved down to Tampa when her parents were killed by a drunk driver in '06. She worked at the local book store and had a long time boyfriend named Henry Porter. From what I can tell, she isn't the time of person who had any enemies."

"Okay so what about Hoffman?" Seaver asked.

"Uh, Jason Hoffman is a well known lawyer. He was arrested once when he was 21 for hitting his girlfriend but charges were dropped. He was born and raised in Tampa and has no family living nearby from what I can tell."

"Does he have any history with drug abuse?" Reid asked.

"If he did, he took care of it discretely," Garcia said apologetically, "And our latest victim, Faith Dooley, was what I call a classic wild child. She never had a daddy and when she was seventeen her mom committed suicide. Faith practically lived on her friends couch. She was arrested twice for possession and once for assault on a police officer."

"So we have a popular lawyer, a student, and a druggie," Morgan summarized, "So I'm guessing these are random attacks?"

Reid nodded, "It would appear that way…"

"Well, that's all I got. Kisses!" Garcia chirped and then the computer screen went back to its original FBI logo.

"Prentiss, I want you to interview Shannon's family and Faith's friends," Hotch said and Emily nodded. "Rossi and Seaver, you go to kidnapping sites. Morgan and Reid, dump sites. And I'll go to the police station and get set up."

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><p>As soon as the plane landed, everyone went to the designated job locations.<p>

Reid climbed into the passenger side of the black SUV as Morgan climbed into the driver seat. Morgan pulled out of the parking lot and began driving on the Tampa roads.

"So…" Morgan said in attempt to make small talk, "how's life?"

"It's… living," Reid said.

Morgan frowned at the vague answer. They sat in silence for a few moments.

"So what's with the sunglasses lately?" Morgan asked finally.

"What?" Reid asked him, confused. Honestly, Reid felt a twinge of panic. _Was he being that obvious?_

"You've been wearing your sunglasses a lot more than usual," Morgan said in a light tone but Reid could hear the concern underneath.

"Is that a crime?" Reid snapped. He was wearing his sunglasses more due to the persistent migraines he had. Sometimes it got so bad to the point he wore his sunglasses on indoors; ignoring the funny looks people gave him. But Morgan couldn't know that. What if he told Hotch, like he did about the nightmares? What if they thought he was crazy? What if they fired him? What if… What if…

Morgan seemed surprised at Reid's outburst. But then he sighed, "Look, ki-Reid, you can tell me anything, you know that, right?"

Reid sighed. _He's only trying to help…_ A small voice inside his head said

"Shut up." Reid muttered.

"What was that?" Morgan asked. Reid sighed and shook his head, "We're here."

They pulled into the small alley way where Shannon Felder's body was found. Morgan gave Reid one more concerned glance and then got out of the car. Reid followed suit.

They walked up side by side to the dumpster in the alley and stopped.

"Okay so if I'm the UNSUB, why did I dump her here?" Morgan said.

Reid had to bite his tongue from saying _'I dunno, why don't you ask yourself if you're the UNSUB'. _Instead he said, "It's secluded and it was the middle of the night so no one saw or heard anything."

Reid turned to Morgan to say something else but suddenly his head exploded with pain. _Please, not now..._ he silently begged.

He nonchalantly turned his head back toward the ground and brought his hands up to his eyes. He pressed his palms into his eyes and the pain dulled slightly. His head still throbbed painfully, but now it was at least bearable.

"Reid?" Morgan asked, except it sounded like he was talking from down a tunnel._ Why was Morgan down a tunnel? _He wondered vaguely.

"Hmpft?" Reid mumbled, not moving his hands from his eyes.

"You okay?" Morgan asked. Reid could feel Morgan's hands on his back. Reid sighed and lowered his hands and slowly looked up to Morgan, careful not to look at the sunlight the wrong way.

"Hm? Oh, yeah," Reid said unconvincingly and then he cleared his throat, "Yes. My head, uh, hurt."

Morgan eyed him for a moment and then said, "I think we should check out the next dump site." Reid nodded and started walking back towards the SUV. Morgan watched him stumble along before following him to the car.

Reid sat down in his seat and prayed silently that Morgan would just drop the incident. But, sadly, no god was listening to his prayers.

"What was that about?" Morgan asked, his voice laced with concern.

"Nothing." Reid said while staring into his hands, "I told you. I just had a headache." Thankfully, Morgan let it go. For now. The quickly drove to the last two dump sites, but found nothing of major importance, and then headed back to the station.


	3. Cravings and Profiles

**Authors Note! **

**Sorry this chapter is short. It's more of just a filler. Thing'll start to get good next chapter! Oh, and when Hotch referes to a "movie" he's talking about an NA meeting.**

**I own nothing! All mistakes are my own. Slight spoilers. Yadda yadda yadda**

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><p>Reid walked into the police station with Morgan close behind him. Hotch looked up from a file he was looking at and walked up to them.<p>

"What did you guys find?" he asked.

"Nothing too helpful," Morgan said grimly, "Just three normal dump sites with not much significance to them."

Hotch sighed. At that moment, Rossi and Seaver walked in. "Hey," Seaver nodded to them.

"What'd you find?" Hotch asked. Rossi sighed, "Not much. Nobody saw or heard anything at any of the abduction sites. This guy is good."

Reid was zoning in and out of their conversation. His head was still throbbing painfully and he hasn't taken off his sunglasses yet. He knew the others noticed, but they didn't say anything.

_Why won't it just go away? _He thought to himself, _what I _really _need right now is some-No!_ He immediately dismissed that thought. There was no way he would use. No way would he use that cool, blissful substance. Although he loved the way it made his mind dull slightly. To float in the grey nothingness and yet still feel limitless. Oh God! How his blood burned with the craving!

"-profile once Prentiss gets back." Hotch said. "Reid?"

Reid snapped out of his lust-crave and looked up at Hotch. "Yeah?"

Hotch eyed him disapproving, as if he knew what Reid was just thinking. "Did you hear what I just said?"

Reid glanced at Morgan and notice that it was only them three, "Uh..."

Hotch sighed and shook his head. He leaned in closer to Reid and said in a quiet voice, so none of the other cops would hear, "Do you need to catch a movie?"

Reid was confused for a moment but then he remembered what Hotch was referring to. He felt his cheeks heat with embarrassment. Reid shifted his gaze from Hotch to his feet. He quickly glanced at Morgan, who looked confused. Then he looked back at Hotch and nodded slowly.

"Kind of…" he said in a quiet voice, filled with so many emotions. Anger. Distress. Shame. Disgust. _Need. _

Hotch sighed, but didn't look angry at him. "I said that when Prentiss gets back we're going to give the profile. You up for that?"

Reid looked Hotch straight in the eye and replied, "Of course."

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><p>"The UNSUB we're looking for is a white male between the ages of 20 and 40," Hotch began the profile. All of the officers of the department had gathered in the main room while the team of profilers stood at the front.<p>

"UNSUB…?" One of them asked. "It stands for Unknown Subject," Reid said impatiently. He was becoming more irritable by the hour. Gosh, did he need a movie…

"He's a narcissist. This means he thinks he's better than everybody. He will most likely work alone but if he does work with a partner, then he will most defiantly be more of a boss to them as oppose to an equal." Rossi continued.

"From the accuracy of the surgery done on the first victim, he or someone who works for him has medical training." Prentiss added.

Morgan cleared his throat and continued the profile, "You've all probably seen him before. He has probably tried to interject himself into the investigation somehow. He likes to keep a sharp eye out on all the news reports and articles being said about him."

"Thank you." Hotch said and dismissed the officers.

"Well that went well," Rossi commented once they left. Morgan nodded, "Yeah, usually they're all doubtful in the profile but these guys seemed to have hope."

"Guys!" Seaver said excitedly and practically ran into the room.

"Yes, Seaver?" Hotch asked. Seaver took a quick breath and plowed on, "We got a guy on the tip line saying that he knows who the UNSUB is."


	4. White Bottle

**Author's Note!**

**Okay! Thank you for the reviews! This is the chapter that everything starts getting gooood! Sorry if Seaver's character is out of place, I kinda started making her my own. THERE WILL BE TORTURE IN LATER CHAPTERS! Possibly the very next one if things go good. Oh, well I'm giving off too much information xD And sorry if I'm not using Rossi or Emily's character enough, I just don't really know how to write them. I'm also using Morgan's character alot because I just love the whole brother/best friend relationship between him and Reid. THIS WILL NOT BE SLASH! Just making myself clear... Jeez, I'm typing way too much. Do people even read these things?**

**I don't own Criminal Minds or the characters. This is not Beta'd and all mistakes are my own. I don't think there are any spoilers but there might be so watch out**

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><p>"What's the name?" Hotch asked, clearly not as excited as Seaver. They got false claims all the time. Surely Seaver knew that.<p>

"We got a Michael Starson. I had Garcia look him up and this guy fits the profile. A month ago, his home business shut down-"

"Stressor," Rossi cut in. Seaver nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah! And he recently purchased a ton of knives, whips, chains, that kind of thing. He has also called the police station four times on information about this case!"

Reid sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. Did she _have _to talk so damn loud?

"Did you get an address?" Hotch asked, already heading out of the room with Rossi and Morgan at his heels. Reid stood there for a moment, dazed, before following them out.

"Um, 54892 Field Road. I already had Garcia look it up and it turns out it's a house that used to be owned by Starson's parents." Seaver said.

"Okay, get the team and some officers together," Hotch ordered. Seaver beamed like a student who just got _a lot _of extra credit. "Okay!"

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><p>An hour later, the BAU team and three officers pulled up to the old house. As soon as Reid laid eyes on the worn building he got a bad feeling in his stomach.<p>

"You don't think it could be a trap… do you?" Reid asked. Morgan glanced over at him, "Do you?"

Reid shrugged and stared up the tall building, "I dunno. I just have a bad feeling."

Morgan nodded and walked over to the group of officers and profilers. Reid followed behind him, mindlessly picking at his Kevlar vest.

"-Rossi and Prentiss to the back. Got it?" Hotch was explaining the raid. Everyone nodded, except Reid who was still only half focused.

"Reid, with me," Morgan said. Him, Morgan, Hotch, Seaver, and two of the officers jogged up to the door.

"MICHAEL STARSON, FBI!" Hotch shouted. He paused a few seconds before nodding to Morgan to kick down the door.

The door flew open with a bang and they all filled in, guns raised. Reid turned a right and began walking down a narrow hallway. He stopped at a door and raised his gun.

_I wonder what my old dealer is doing right now…. No focus! _He said in his head. He threw open the door and assessed the room.

"Cle-" he began to shout but was interrupted by a scream followed by two gunshots.

No! He quickly ran out of the room and down the hall way. The closer he got he began to hear voices.

"-gun down. We can talk about this." It was Hotch's voice. Reid turned the corner and saw an average built brunette man with his back to him and a gun to a blonde head. Seaver.

He quickly glanced around. They were in what seems to be a living area. Two police officers lay face down in a pool of blood on the ground. Dead. The rest of his team were on the other side of the man that Reid assumed to be Starson.

Morgan glanced up and met Reid's eye for a brief moment before looking back to Starson. That was when he realized that he was the only one with a shot at Starson.

He walked out from the corner he was in, slowly and careful not to alert him.

"No!" Starson yelled, "Put your guns down or else Blondie here" he pushed his gun into Seaver's cheek, "gets a bullet through her pretty little head."

Hotch hesitated for a moment and then lowered his gun. The rest of the team followed suit.

"Okay. So what is it you want?" Hotch asked.

Starson shook his head, "When I said put your guns down, I meant everyone."

Reid froze. Had he heard him?

"I suggest you put your gun down, Dr. Reid," Starson said without turning around. Reid didn't move his gun and stood very still.

Starson sighed, "Well… I guess I'll just have to take it by force."

Reid stood there confused. How was he supposed to take his gun while he had Seaver? Before he could ponder it further, a large dark object came flying at him.

Next thing he knew, he was sprawled out on the ground. His chest felt constricted. He felt himself wheezing and gasping for air. Dark spots swam in his vision and he desperately blinked them away. What the hell?

He looked up and saw the third police officer that had come with them pinning him down on the floor. Reid kicking his feet and struggled to get free.

"Now, now Dr. Reid I wouldn't do that," Starson said. Reid looked over at his team who had looks of fear written on their faces while Starson look rather pleased with himself.

Reid stopped struggling because he realized it was pointless. The officer had at least 40 more pounds on him as oppose to Reid.

The officer grinned and got off of Reid. He grabbed Reid's forearm tightly and pulled him off the ground. The officer pulled Reid in front of him and Reid felt something cold against his throat. A knife.

Reid groaned internally. _Seriously? This day just keeps getting better and better. _

His teammate's eyes widened. Now they had Reid and Seaver in deadly positions.

"Okay…" Hotch began, his voice monotone, "What do you want us to do?"

Starson smiled, "If you look under the chair next to you, you'll find a bottle of pills."

Hotch hesitated and eyed Starson warily. Then he got down on his knees and looked under the old sagging chair and pulled out a small white bottle.

"Okay, now what?" Hotch asked as he stood back up.

"Each of you is going to take two pills," Starson said. This time Morgan spoke up, "What are they?"

Starson smirked, "You won't know until you try 'em,"

The team glanced at each other and then Hotch opened the little white bottle.

"No!" Reid said, "You have no idea what those might be."

"Shut up," the officer growled into his ear and pressed the knife tighter into his neck. Reid hissed when he felt a trickle of blood run down his neck.

"What choice do we have, Reid?" Rossi asked in a pained tone.

"Yeah, _Reid_," Starson said in a mocking voice. The safety clicked off on the gun he was holding to Seaver's head, "What choice do you have?"

Reid sighed angrily and watched helplessly as his team swallowed the pills. Morgan walked up to Reid with two small white pills in his hand.

Reid shook his head and clamped his lips shut. Morgan looked pained but said, "C'mon, Reid."

Reid looked at him with pleading eyes but reluctantly opened his mouth. Morgan out his hand up to Reid's mouth and dropped the pills in.

As soon as he swallowed them, his whole world became fuzzy. He heard a loud thump but he was already too far gone to realize what it was.

"Emily!" someone yelled, which was followed by another thump.

"Rossi?" someone else asked in a slurred voice. A few moments later there was another thump. He vaguely felt himself hitting the ground before he slipped into the darkness.

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><p><strong>Yes, yes the whole team just took happy sleepy pills. And yes, the police officer was one of the bad guys. I'm kinda starting to toy around with the idea of a character death...? I'm not completely sure about it but if I were to kill a character off, it would be in way later chapters. Maybe. I dunno. Oh well, I was just giving you a heads up. Review!<strong>


	5. Yankin' My Chain

**Author's Note!**

**Well, sadly, there isn't torture in this chapter. Wait, I lied. There is but it's nothing major. Or is it? *laughs evily* But, seriously, there is a little bit of torture here. There's also a little bit of language in here, too. **

**I don't own anything. Slight spoilers, I think. Oh well, enjoy!**

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><p>Reid felt like he was floating. Hell, he felt like he was on freaking cloud nine! It was the blissful nothingness that he had grown to love. The buzzing in his veins that tickled him on the inside. His mind was totally shut off and things were completely, utterly, quiet…<p>

"Reid!" someone said.

So much for blissful silence… He chose to ignore the voice and submerged himself into the darkness again. Awesome.

"Reid! C'mon, man!" the voice said again.

_Urrgh! Shut up!_

The darkness in his mind slowly began to lighten up and the voices he was hearing became clearer. There was more than one; multiple people, male and female. His team!

His blinked his eyes in attempt to get rid of the darkness. He struggled to regain his consciousness. He heard himself groan as he rolled onto his side. Or at least attempted to, something was keeping him in place.

He sat up in shock.

"Whoa, kid!" someone said. Morgan. Reid looked down at his feet. His right ankle had a clunky cuff around it, which connected him to the wall. The chain was about a foot in length which gave him limited mobility.

Reid tried to stand up, which proved to be a struggle due to his close proximity to the wall. He looked into the room.

The room was in the shape of a circle, about ten feet across. There was absolutely no furniture except for a large wooden box in the middle of the room. The walls were grey and made of stone. Each member of his team were chained to match himself. They were each about two feet apart in the order of Morgan, Reid, Seaver, Hotch, Rossi, and then Emily between Rossi and Morgan. There were no windows whatsoever and there was one door in between Seaver and himself. The only source of light came from the assortment of light bulbs that hung from the ceiling.

Prentiss and Seaver were both still passed out while Rossi and Hotch were pulling uselessly against their chains. He turned to Morgan who was studying him with worried eyes.

"Whass goin' on?" his voice was slurred and he leaned heavily against the wall.

Morgan sighed angrily, "Turns out it was a trap after all. Those pills Starson gave us were some kind of sleeping pills."

Reid's brow furrowed in confusion and shook his head, "No, sleeping pills wouldn't work that strong that fast."

Morgan shrugged, "Well, then I have no idea what he gave us. But Seaver and Prentiss still haven't waken up and the rest of us have only been awake a couple of minutes."

Reid sighed and closed his eyes. Kidnapped! Again! How could this have happened? Only a small percentage of people get kidnapped once, but twice? In a couple of years, he'll probably have a new world record!

"What do you think he's going to do to us?" Reid asked quietly without opening his eyes. Morgan didn't reply so Reid assumed he didn't hear him.

"I don't know," Morgan admitted. So he had heard him. "I just keep going over the past victims and…" he trailed off and Reid shuddered. Oh God, they were going to die down here.

A low moan came from across the room. Reid looked over and saw Emily Prentiss put her hands up to her head. He saw her stiffen for a moment when she realized where she was. She slowly sat up and looked around much like Reid had earlier.

Prentiss closed her eyes and groaned.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked eventually. Rossi turned to her and basically told her the same thing Morgan had to Reid.

Eventually Seaver came around. She was slightly more dazed than everyone else, but Reid guessed that was because she was slightly smaller than the rest of them and the drug took a larger effect.

_Drug._

The word echoed through his mind. Had everything he worked for been snatched away by two little pills? _No, _he told himself, _your body isn't craving it so you most likely will be okay. _

"So Starson went from taking one person at a time to six?" Hotch stated, "That's a huge escalation."

Everyone was quiet until Prentiss spoke up, "What if those three initial victims weren't the only ones?"

"You're suggesting there were others?" Rossi asked and Emily nodded. "Well, yeah. That would explain how he was able to get all of us without a problem."

Reid listened to their conversation but something didn't seem right. Why did he send in the tip? Did he panic when we gave out the profile and decide to get them out of the way? Or…

"What if we were the target all along?" Reid suddenly spoke up.

"And he just killed those other people just to get us here?" Seaver asked, doubt clear in her voice.

Reid shrugged and suddenly felt embarrassed, "Well, I dunno, maybe…"

Morgan nodded slowly, "It's a good theory. I mean, what would cause him to change his pattern so drastically?"

"Maybe he got scared. Decides to take out the profilers and make a run for it." Rossi suggested.

That was when Reid noticed something else. "Look at this room," he said. Everyone stared at him for a moment then glanced around the room. Hotch was the one who understood what he was getting at."It's perfectly set up. Six chains equally spread apart. It was like it was waiting for us to come here."

Reid nodded, "So, it's starting to look more li-" Suddenly a sharp pain traveled its way up his leg and he cried out.

"REID!" his team yelled but he didn't hear them. All he knew was the feeling of flames traveling in his body; engulfing him in the spiraling heat of pain. He vaguely felt himself falling and landing on the floor.

And then it stopped. Reid laid in a heap on the floor, his body twitching. He was breathing hard and his skin tingled everywhere. His heart felt like it was bursting out of his chest. _Thump, thump, thump, thump…._

He heard voices trying to talk to him but he didn't care, all he wanted was to return to that blissful darkness he had once called home.

Groaning, he pushed himself up onto his elbows. "What happened?" he rasps.

He could almost _feel_ his friends relief when they realized he wasn't dead.

"I don't know, Reid, we were kind hoping you would tell us," Morgan said. Reid sighed and ran his hand over his face. What did happen? He looked down at his ankle; where the pain started. Then it hit him.

"I think… I think I was just electrocuted!" he said in a panicked voice. He started tugging at the cuff around his ankle. "Get it off, get it off, get it off…." He muttered over and over to himself.

He felt his chest tighten in panic. _No, no, no, no..._

"Reid!" Hotch's voice brought him back to reality. "You need to calm down."

"Calm down? Calm down!" he said in disbelief which turned to anger, "I was just fucking electrocuted! Did you know electric shock can cause serious internal damage?"

"Reid-" Hotch began.

"No! Listen," he said in a slightly hysterical voice, "it causes damage _especially _to the heart, muscles, and the…." He voice faltered a bit, "and to the brain! Hotch, I _can't_ have brain damage!"

The rest of the team stared at him in shock. Reid _never _broke down in front of them.

"Reid," Hotch said in a voice he reserved for his son, Jack, "I need you to calm down and take a deep breath."

Reid tried to slow his breathing but he ended up sounding like a dying fish out of water.

_Brain damage._

Reid wasn't a very physical person; everyone knew that. He was a thinker, not a fighter. But if someone took away his mind… Who would he be? He wouldn't be the genius anymore, thats for sure. He would be nobody. The BAU certainly wouldn't want him anymore. His mind was the only reason Gideon helped him out. Without it…

Nobody said anything after that. They knew how important Reid's brain was to him, but they didn't understand.

"Why?" Reid asked in a quiet voice, "Why did he do that?"

Nobody answered him immediately but then Rossi spoke up, "He probably knows that your mind is the most important thing to you. He's a sadist, remember? He enjoys causing you pain in the worst way."

Morgan let out a frustrated yell and punched that wall causing everyone to jump. "When I get my hands on this guy..." he growled.

"Morgan." Hotch said in a warning tone. Morgan took a couple of calming breaths and looked over at Reid.

"We _are _going to get out of here," Morgan said strongly. Reid nodded and he tried to believe him. _They are the best in the world. If anyone could get out of this situation, its them. _

And that's when the door opened.

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><p><strong>Yes, that IS a very dramatic door. I got the idea of the electric-chain from the movie Saw. So, yeah... Just a little head up about the next few chapter: THERE WILL BE HEAVY TORTURE! Bu Bu BUUUUM! What does this mean? Well, I'm not gonna teeeeell you. You're just gonna have to wait until tomorrow (hopefully tomorrow). <strong>

**REVIEW! :D**


	6. Restrained

**Author's Note!**

**I know I promised tortue in this chapter but I kinda had some things pop up and this was all I could fit in today. Sorry! Anyways, I was reading over my other chapter and I noticed the last two chapters weren't as nicely written as I would liked them to be. So I kinda spent more time writing and re-reading this chapter. Hopefully this is more fully written than the last two chapters.**

**I don't own Criminal Minds or the characters. **

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><p>The door slowly creaked open; it was like something from a horror movie. Everyone visibly tensed up and Reid could practically hear Seaver hyperventilating. Starson stepped into the circular room wearing dark jeans and a black hooded jacket.<p>

Now it really looked like a horror movie.

It was the first time Reid saw Starson up close. He looked to be about 34, with blue eyes that had a mysterious glint about them. His light brown hair hung just above his ears in untamed curls. He was around 6'11" and 180 pounds. His eyes danced around the room and eyed each team member accordingly.

Then his eyes rested on Reid and his thin lips twitched upward like he was fighting off a smirk. Starson cleared his throat, "So, Dr. Reid, I didn't know you had a phobia of electric shock."

"Don't talk to him," Morgan growled in a dangerously low tone. Starson glanced over at Morgan and shook his head like a parent who was disappointed in their child, "Now Agent Morgan, did your mother not teach you your manners? Growling is for dogs." Starson walked over to Reid and knelt down to where he was sitting on the floor.

"I'm afraid Dr. Reid is going to have to pay for your disrespect." Starson said. Everyone froze and Morgan's anger immediately turned to fear. Reid's eyes widened but he remained silent.

_Be strong, _he told himself, _for them. _

Reid swallowed hard, "What… What are you going to do to me?" He mentally patted himself on the back for keeping his voice strong. Starson smile seemed to falter for a second at the lack of fear but he quickly regained his composure.

"Gordon! Benny!" he yelled over his shoulder. A few seconds later, two other men walked into the door. One of them was a couple of inches shorter and a few pounds heavier than Starson and had dark brown eyes and hair. Reid had guessed him to be of Hispanic or African American decent.

"Benny," Starson addressed the darker man, "The key?" Benny reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small, silver key. He tossed it to Starson who caught it midair. Starson then turned back to Reid.

"You know… I've looked into you," he turned and gestured out toward the team, "all of you. And I have to say, Dr. Reid that you have, by far, the most interesting past." He looked into them? How much did he know?

Reid eyed Starson warily and thought of all the different things he could be referring to. He decided it be best not to ask just in case he started bringing up his past. _That _was something his team didn't need to hear.

Starson reached down and unlocked his ankle cuff. Although Reid knew nothing good was going to come out of it, he felt slightly relieved to have the cuff off. Brain damage was defiantly not an option for him. Starson grabbed Reid arm and hauled him up to his feet.

"Gordon," Starson addressed the other man. Gordon was way over 6'. He was at least 6'5 or 6'6 and weighed 250 pounds. He had piercing green eyes and jet black hair. "Go get set up," Starson ordered. Gordon gave to sharp nod and left the room.

"Well, Dr. Reid, it looks like you're the first to go." Starson said in a gleeful tone and panic immediately filled Reid. _Go _as in leave the room? Or _go _as in go _go_? Apparently the rest of his team were deeply disturbed by that statement.

"Where are you taking him?" Hotch demanded angrily. Starson looked over at him and gave a small laugh, "Oh! Dr. Reid won't be killed, I assure you."

The team visibly relaxed but remained tense. Starson, with his hand still firmly clamped on Reid's arm, led him out the door. Just before the door close, Starson looked out at the BAU team and smiled devilishly, "Yet."

The last thing Reid saw was the horrified faces of the people he considered to be his family.

Starson pulled Reid down the long, white hallway. Benny walked on his left and said nothing. "Where are we going?" Reid finally asked as he looked down seemingly endless hallway.

It had tall white walls, with door lining them. Ceiling lights hung every few feet or so and shined down the florescent light; causing Reid's headache to flare up again. _Great, just what I needed, _he thought as he squinted his eyes to block some of the light.

Neither Starson nor Benny answered him. Instead, they stopped at a door and Starson took out a key from his pocket. He unlocked the door and shoved Reid inside. What he saw literally made his heart stop for a few seconds.

The whole room was white; white walls, white ceiling, white floors, white everything. The back wall was lined entirely with torture weapons. All kind of knives, chains, whips, hammers, nails, lighters, brands, and Reid even saw a taser. The room had no furniture besides a large operating table in the center, with straps to hold down the arms, thighs, ankles, waist, hands, and there was even a strap to go across the forehead. Gordon stood with Benny behind the table with sickening smiles.

Reid stood there, mouth hanging open. He didn't even notice Starson come up behind him and grab him into a bear hug. Reid gasped and tried to push him off, but it was pointless. Starson had a grip of steel.

"Let. Me. Go," Reid said through clenched teeth. Starson didn't reply, instead he shoved Reid forward at the table. Reid stumbled and rammed into the side of the table. Before he had time to react, Benny and Gordon reached out and grabbed either of his shoulders. They pulled him up and pushed him down onto the table.

Reid kicked and shouted but they didn't budge. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Starson rush up to his side. Reid felt the restrains tie around his forearms and then one tightened around his wrists. He strained his neck to look up. He saw Starson grab at his right leg in attempt to tie it down.

"No!" Reid shouted. He kicked his legs at Starson and felt a satisfied grunt when his foot connected with something hard. He felt pride swell in him but it quickly disappeared when he felt a hand smack him across the face. His vision black out for a millisecond before coming back. He blinked numerous times to try to get rid of the spots in his vision. He felt the restraints tighten around both of his thighs and ankles before Starson's face came back into view.

His left eye was swollen from what Reid guessed to be a kick to the face. Starson glared at Reid and hissed, "If you have just complied, I would have gone easy on you!" he eyes sparked with a dangerous fire that scared Reid, "And now? I'm going to make you feel pain, Dr. Reid."

Starson reached over and tied the strap across Reid's head. Now he was totally immobilized. He looked around as much as his limited view let him. Benny and Gordon were nowhere to be seen and Starson had walked over to the back wall.

Starson looked up and down the wall before deciding something that was hanging in the lower right corner. Reid couldn't see what he grabbed but fear still flooded through him. Reid saw Starson wander back over to him with the mystery object behind his back.

Starson let his eyes wander over Reid's restrained body before looking him in the eyes. Starson smiled and brought his hands out from behind his back. He was holding a brand about two inches wide and four inches tall in the shape of a cross.

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><p><strong>Yes, a cross. I know, I'm evil. Oh! Random fact: The title of this story comes from the song Bitter Revenge, Sweet Tragedy by Asking Alexandria. I was sitting at my desk wondering waht I sould call this and my IPod was on shuffel and then that song popped up and I was like "Oh! That'd be perfect!" So, yeah... I'll try to post tomorrow and this time I SWEAR there will be torture. <strong>

**REVIEW! I COMMAND YOU! Seriously, it only takes like two seconds...**


	7. I'm Proud of You

**Author's Note!**

**I told you I would be back! And, yes, there is torture in this chapter! But it's not that graphic since it's only the beginning. And thank you for all the nice reviews! Be warned with this chapter, I almost cried while writing the ending :,( It's a bit longer than all my other chapters but I wanted it to be really good.**

**I don't own Criminal Minds or the characters. There are spoilers in this one since alot of this chapter is flashbacks. Enjoy!**

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><p>Reid froze and felt a wave of nausea. Starson grinned at his reaction and leisurely walked closer and closer until his lower stomach was pressed up against the side of the table. "Was it his father who branded Tobias with the cross?" Starson asked in a casual tone. Reid felt sick. <em>How much did he know about him? Did he know this much about the rest of the team?<em>

Starson smiled even wider, "You know," he began as he took a lighter out of his pocket, "Some people brand themselves believing it to be art. What do you think?" Starson twirled the end of the metal rod over the flame of the lighter.

Reid swallowed but his throat remained dry, "Uh… branding result in third-degree burns and nerve death to the area," he said lamely, "I don't really see the art in it." Starson continued to spin the cross in the flames. He stared at the intricate twists of red and blue twirl around the dark metal.

"How did you know that?" Reid finally asked. Starson looked up from the flames and stared at him, confused, "Know what?"

Reid cleared his throat and elaborated, "That Tobias' father branded him with a cross. I mean, how did you get that information? That's supposed to be confidential."

Starson smirked, "Let's just say that I'm a man of many connections. I know things about you that even Agent Morgan doesn't know."

"Like what?"

Starson shook his head, "You'll just have to wait and see. Oh! It seems to be hot enough now." Starson flipped his lighter shut and stuffed it back into his jacket pocket. The cross was now red hot and it glared at Reid's frightened eyes. _Don't beg for mercy, _he told himself, _it's what he wants. _

Reid pressed his lips tightly together as Starson began unbuttoning the top buttons on Reid shirt. "I'm not going to lie, this is going to be _very _painful," Starson said in a gleeful tone.

_Don't beg, don't beg, don't beg, you ARE stronger than him…_

Starson finished with the buttons on Reid's shirt and pushed it open revealing Reid's pale chest. Starson raised the brand up and positioned the cross just above Reid's bellybutton. _Don't beg, don't beg… damn, this is gonna hurt… shut up!_

Starson paused for dramatic effect and then pushed the metal down. Pain shot from his skin all through his body and he screamed louder than he has ever before. He didn't know he long it lasted, all he was aware of was the white hot pain searing inside him. His body began numbing and he felt himself slipping away to the darkness.

Starson raised the metal off his chest just before he blacked out. Reid lay there, unmoving, and let the pain engulf him. His eyes were screwed shut and his heart beat was erratic. Starson was speaking to him but Reid could't understand what he was saying. All sounds were blocked out by the sound of his heart beating in his ears.

The pain slowly lowered a bit and Reid slowly pried his eyes open. Starson was staring at his face, grinning. The metal rod was gone from his hands and was replaced by a sharp hunting knife. "For a moment there, I thought you were gonna pass out. But I couldn't let you off that easy."

Reid groaned and shut his eyes again. He just wanted to go home and curl up on his couch with a good book and some overly sweet coffee. "Go…to…hell," Reid said between gasps for air. As soon as the words left his mouth, a sharp pain exploded from his arm.

Reid cried out and his eyes flew open. Starson brought the bloodied knife away from Reid's arm and sighed sadly, "I will not tolerate rudeness from you, Dr. Reid." Reid strained his eyes to look down at his arms. A large cut, about an inch and a half across, was just above the crook of his arm and was gushing blood.

Reid looked back up to Starson who was studying his face curiously. Starson looked back over Reid body and then brought his gaze back up to Reid's face and then asked curiously, "How many times did Foyet stab Agent Hotchner?"

Reid's breathing hitched and his body suddenly felt cold. Starson was still staring at him and appeared to become impatient, "Well?"

"Uh…" Reid's mind was slowly shutting down on him, "I… I'm not sure."

To his surprise, Starson threw back his head and laughed. "You don't know? Is that the best you could come up with? You have an eidetic memory for God's sake!"

Reid frowned and stared at Starson, who was struggling to catch his breath. "Now, seriously, how many times was he stabbed?" he asked. Reid swallowed hard. _Shouldn't Starson already know how many times? Of course he does, you idiot, _he scolded himself, _it's called psychological torture. _

"He, ah… nine times." Reid finally said.

Starson smiled and Reid felt his stomach turn, "Well, let's see if we can beat that. Shall we?" Reid's chest tightened, _don't beg, don't beg… fuck it! He's going to kill you!_

"You... you don't have to do this," Reid pathetically said.

This caused Starson to smile wider, "Oh, Dr. Reid, you know I do." With that, Starson raised the blade and aimed to strike. Reid snapped.

"No!" he shouted; his voice on the edge of hysteria, "Please! Don't! I'll… I'll be quiet if you just let me go! Please!"

Starson smiled but didn't say anything. For a split second, Reid thought he wasn't going to do it. But those thoughts were killed the moment the blade began to fall.

_Morgan sighed angrily, "Man, I hate not having a plan. We're looking for a needle in a haystack."_

_Reid knew he shouldn't try to correct him but he couldn't help himself, "Actually, it's more like looking for a needle in a pile of needles."_

_Morgan looked over at him, "What?" Reid shrugged, "A needle would stand out in a haystack."_

The blade sunk into Reid's flesh and Reid screamed his lungs out. "One," Starson began counting and slowly pulled the now crimson blade out of his chest.

_Everyone stood from the table and Hotch tossed something at him._

"_What's this?" Reid asked as he grabbed for the manila folder lying on the table. His team stopped what they were doing and watched the interaction with amused eyes._

_Hotch sighed angrily, "You told me you were clear to travel. You lied." Oh, crap._

"_Naughty boy," Prentiss commented. _

_Reid cleared his throat and began to defend himself, "No, I didn't. I am a doctor so, technically, it wasn't a lie." Hotch stared at him a second before walking away, clearly in no mood to argue._

"_What was it, then?" Garcia asked form over by then door._

"_Uh… Second opinion?" Reid said feebly. Garcia looked over him, amused, and then said, "You're my bitch now."_

_He heard Morgan laugh at the horrified expression on his face._

Starson brought the blade down again. Reid tried to hold in his cry, so it came out as a strangled yell.

"Two."

_Reid walked down the hall to his hotel room. He reached the door and began to pull out his key when he realized the television was on inside. Slowly, he pushed the door open to find Rossi and Morgan lounged out on his couch._

"_What are you guys doing here?" Reid walks into the room and sets the evidence box down on the table. They glance up at him and Morgan says, "Hey. What's it look like we're doing?"_

_Reid looks at the television and then back at them, "Uh, breaking into my room and watching Days of Our Lives?"_

_Rossi looks up from the TV screen, "The Young and the Restless." _

The knife sunk into his skin again and Reid felt as if his life was slowly draining away from him.

"Three."

"Please..."

_Morgan walked over to where Reid was standing at the coffee maker, "Easy there tough guy. Have some coffee with your sugar."_

_Reid sighed, "I need something to wake me up."_

"_Oh," Morgan said and drawled out the 'o', "Late night?"_

_Reid nodded, "Very."_

_Morgan laughed and exclaimed, "My man!"_

"_Not that kind of late night!" Reid said. _

"Four."

_Reid looked up from what he was doing to see Emily fiddling with some type of toy. _

"_What's that?" he asked her._

_Prentiss looked up at him and smiled slightly, "It's a star puzzle. It's impossible to put together. There's actually a romantic tale behind it. There was this prince who loved this princess and he wanted to show her how much he loved her. So he caught a falling star, but he was so excited he dropped it, and it broke into all those little pieces. He frantically put the pieces back together to show him his undying love for her."_

_Reid stared at her for a moment before saying, "That makes no sense. You can't catch a falling star, it would burn up in the atmosphere."_

_Emily visibly deflated little bit, "Well, it's a fable. It doesn't have to make sense."_

_Reid shook his head, "But fables have morals. That didn't have a moral."_

_Emily sighed, "Ok, well it's just a little romantic tale. The point is the puzzle is impossible…" she trailed off as she watched Reid put the puzzle together and set it down on the table in front of her. She stared at him and then to the star puzzle. _

_She sighed and shook her head, "There's a lot to hate about you, Dr. Reid."_

"Five," Starson said in a gleeful voice but Reid was already too far gone to hear. He couldn't scream anymore; only slip himself back into happy memories and hope to be saved.

_Reid looked over Garcia's shoulder in shock, "Are you hacking the government HMO database? Is that legal?"_

_Garcia laughed slightly and shook her head, "Of course not. We'll go to prison and you'll become somebody's bitch."_

"_Really?"_

"Six."

_Garcia, Reid, Morgan, and Seaver all walked out of the movie theater together. _

"_There was too much blood and gore and uggg…." A very disgusted Garcia said._

"_Garcia, it's a slasher film. How do you do a slacer film without violence." Reid said. _

"_You imply it," Garcia said._

_Morgan sighed, "Baby, the movie was called "Slice 6". What were you expecting?"_

"_A refreshing beverage with a twist of comedy. I'm going to have nightmares for a week!"Garcia exclaimed and they all laughed. _

"Seven."

_Morgan and Reid walked through the garage of the apartment building complex of the latest victim._

"_You know, I rode a bike in college," Reid said thoughtfully._

"_That's because you weren't old enough to drive, Einstein," Morgan shot back. _

_Reid shook his head, "I could drive but the state wouldn't issue me a license since I was fourteen."_

"Eight."

_Gideon sighed and leaned forward in his seat, "This is going to hit you, and when it does, there's only three facts you need to know. You did what you had to do, and a lot of good people are alive because of what you did."_

_Reid smiled slightly, "What's the third?."_

"_I'm proud of you."_

"Nine."

"_It has been said that time heals all wounds. I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue, and the pain lessens, but it is never gone."_

"Ten."

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><p><strong>I have to say, I'm super happy with the way this chapter turned out! It isn't like the stuff I usually write... It's better! So, yeah, PLEASE REVIEW! I spent like two hours on this chapter xD I'll TRY to post tomorrow but I can't promise that I will. But I shall try! <strong>

**Oh! By the way, I'm starting to more and more like the idea of a character death. (Not that I WANT to kill off a character, I just want the drama that goes with it) So comment which character you DEFFINATELY DON'T want me to kill off. Or if you want to be evil, you can tell me which character you WANT to be killed off. **

**Review!**


	8. Arachnophobia: Fear of Spiders

**Author's Note!**

**Okay, it's officail, THERE WILL BE A CHARACTER DEATH! But fear not my loves, I could NEVER kill Reid! Or Morgan. Or Hotch. So it's going to either be Emily, Rossi, or Seaver. And I have already made of my mind. But you know what? I'm not gonna tell you! But, sheesh, I never knew there were so many Seaver-haters O.o. Like seriously! I was all like "Whoa..."**

**Anyways, thank you for the lovely reviews! Reid won't really be in this chapter since he was so, ah, injured in the last one. And plus, I have to torture the other team members at some point. Enjoy!**

**I don't own Criminal Minds or the characters. (If I did, Reid would be tied up in my room right now :D)All mistakes are my own. There may be spoilers in here but I'm not sure. I'm too lazy to look that closely xD**

**Oh! And theres some, er, strong language in here. Watch out, little ones ;D**

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><p>Starson smiled devilishly at the team, "Yet." And then he was gone. With Reid. The skinny, awkward, genius who can't talk to women if his life depended on it. But why take him? Was it to add to the torture of knowing their most innocent agent was out there, facing the worst on his own?<p>

Hotch sighed angrily and abruptly slammed his fist into the wall behind him. Every jumped in surprise. Sure, they expected this type of reaction from Morgan, but Hotch? Hotch was suppose to be the calm and emotionless leader that let nothing get to him.

"Who the _hell _do they think they are?" Hotch seethed.

"Um, our kidnappers?" Seaver suggested which earned her a stony glare from Hotch. Hotch opened his mouth to say something, most likely hateful, back to her but Rossi already saw that coming.

"Let's go over the profile," Rossi suggested. Hotch sighed yet again and tried to calm himself. _Reid was out there, possibly being killed, and we're going over the profile? _He thought angrily to himself.

"Okay, so this guy is obliviously more sophisticated than we originally thought," Prentiss began.

"And he said he researched us. So he has connections," Morgan interjected.

Hotch nodded, his anger finally to a controlled level, "He seemed pretty calm when he came in here for Reid. And Gordon and Benny are-"

He was cut off by a loud "No!" coming from outside the room and everyone visibly jumped. That was Reid's voice. Nobody said anything for a few seconds, thinking about what kind of torture Reid may be going through.

Hotch cleared his throat, "And Gordon and Benny seem to comply with whatever he says. So they're either afraid of him or are in some kind of debt to him."

The room was quiet for a moment and then Seaver said, "Do you think he has other people working for him?"

Nobody answered. Nobody needed to. No matter what, they were in huge trouble.

"No!" Reid's voice filled the air, followed the hum of his voice but the rest of the team couldn't make out the words being said.

Suddenly, a loud scream pierced the air. Reid's scream. Everyone flinched as if the sound had physically sliced through them. And then it stopped.

Dead silence.

_SLAM! _Seaver yelped in surprise and everyone jumped. Morgan had punched the wall and was now staring down at the blood running down his knuckles.

"I'M GOING TO KILL THAT SON OF A BITCH!" Morgan roared.

Rossi sighed sadly, "Morgan calm dow-"

"Calm down? That's fucking Reid in there!" Morgan shouted. And then it was as if a knife had sliced through the air. Reid's scream's filled the air. It lasted for a few seconds and then died down.

Silence.

Reid screamed again, but this time it sounded more like a strangled yell. And then it stopped. Everyone sat in silence. No more screams followed. Everyone on the team hoped it was because Reid had passed out, not that… _He was dead. _

Hotch shuddered. _No, _he told himself, _Reid can't die. He's Reid. _

The air in the room felt suffocation. Nobody spoke. There were no words that could be said. Reid was Reid. Their genius. Their "pretty boy". Their awkward friend who could put a smile onto anyone's face. Reid grew on people, and once you get attached, there was no going back.

"Remember, Starson said he wasn't going to kill Reid," Rossi reminded them in attempt to lift their sunken spirits.

"Yet." Emily said bitterly.

"Prentiss!" Hotch snapped, "We do _not _need that kind of thinking!"

"What?" Prentiss exclaimed, "You heard the screaming! Reid doesn't scream! But yet he was! Hotch, what are they doing to him?" She was near tears now and everyone was stunned into silence. Emily Prentiss _didn't _cry. But then again, why could blame her for breaking down in this situation?

"Emily," Rossi began gently, "Reid is stronger than we give him credit for. He'll pull through. He always does."

Prentiss calmed slightly at his words. But that calm feeling immediately disappeared as soon as the door creaked open and Starson stepped inside the room with Gordon right behind him.

The team's eyes widened when they took in Starson's appearance. He was covered in blood. His sleeves had been pushed up and his bear arms were stained crimson. His sweatshirt was now bright red with the still wet blood. Reid's blood, no doubt.

"What did you do to him? You bastard!" Morgan shouted.

Starson didn't even glance his way. Instead, strode right up to Hotch and took a key out of his pocket and knelt down to Hotch's ankle cuff.

"Hey! Did you hear me?" Morgan continues to shout at him, "I said, what the hell did you do with Reid? Huh?"

Hotch's cuff clattered to the ground and Starson stood up. "Agent Morgan, I would suggest you calm your anger. You wouldn't want me to add another extra punishment to Agent Hotchner here, would you?" Morgan stiffened but kept his mouth shut. Starson grinned at that and said happily, "I thought so."

Starson then turned to Gordon and nodded his head. Gordon walked up to Hotch and grabbed his forearm tightly and began to lead him out of the room. Starson fell in step on Hotch's other side and the trio walked out of the room. The rest of the team didn't protest in fear that they would only do more harm than good.

"Where are we going?" Hotch asked with his famous poker face on.

Starson laughed slightly before replying, "You know, Dr. Reid asked me the same thing." Hotch stiffened slightly at the mention of Reid's name but didn't say anything. And that was the end of that. They walked in silence for a few moments before stopping at one of the doors in the hallway.

Starson reached out and unlocked the door and pushed it open. Hotch had half expected to see Reid, lying there, motionless. Dead. But there was no Reid. Only a large white room with a small, glass coffin in the center of the room. Panic struck Hotch, they weren't going to put him in there, were they?

Gordon pulled him inside the room by his arm and led him over to the coffin. They stopped walking about a foot away from the glass box when Starson knelt down and unlocked the lid of the box and then stood back up.

"Get in," Starson commanded.

"No," Hotch said firmly.

Starson smiled and stepped closer Hotch so that they were practically nose to nose, "If you don't get into the box, Agent Hotchner, I will personally go back into that room and kill every single one of you agents. And I'll even go and hunt down that precious son of yours. Now, I'll repeat myself, get in the box."

Hotch froze, _would he really do that? Or was he bluffing? _Hotch eyed up Starson. He was either serious about the threat or is a world class champion at poker. But, Hotch wasn't willing to risk it. Hotch glared at Starson a few more moments before stepping down into the coffin.

Hotch slowly lower himself down until he was lying flat on his back, staring up at the white ceiling. Starson knelt down and closed the lid, locking Hotch inside. Hotch looked and saw a small hole, about an inch across, over his face for oxygen.

He watched Gordon walk over to the large wooden cabinet against the wall and open it up. He pulled out a large, black tub. Gordon walked back over to the glass coffin and set the tub down. Starson looked inside the tub and then glanced at Hotch and smiled.

"Agent Hotchner is it correct that you have arachnophobia?" he asked casually. Hotch felt a paralyzing fear shoot through him. _How did he know that? Even if he had searched through his history, how could he know _that?

Starson smiled wider, "I'll take that as a yes."

Starson walked over to the bottom of the coffin near Hotch's feet. He reached down and opened a small window type thing that Hotch didn't notice before. It was about half a foot across and a little smaller than that tall. Starson motioned at Gordon to bring the tub over to him.

Gordon heaved the tub up and handed it to Starson. Starson grinned down to Hotch, "Agent Hotchner, I think I'm really going to enjoy this." With that, Starson tipped the tub over and out poured hundreds of small, black spiders into the coffin.

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><p><strong>Yes, Hotch is now swimming in a coffin of spiders. Geez, I'm starting to scare myself O.o So, anyways I finished the outline to this story and I'll be happy to inform you that there will be ATLEAST 12 more chapters to this story. Reid will be back in the next chapter! I might actually post later on today if I have time but thats a maybe. <strong>

**REVIEW! Or I might kill Reid if you don't... *Evil smile* (I'm bluffing, so don't freak out lol)**


	9. Nicole

**Author's Note!**

**I'm baaack. Long time no see, eh? Lol. Not much really happens in this chapter, it's more of just some angst and an introduction to another character. Seriously though, some of you guys are starting to scare me with the whole "Kill Seaver!" thing O.o You guys'll almost make me feel bad if I DON'T kill her. Although, I guess it's my fault for asking you who to kill... Anyway, thanks for the reviews and please read on! There's a lil' bit of language from Morgan but what were you expecting?**

**I don't own Criminal Minds or the characters. All mistakes are my own. There ARE definatly spoilers in here for previous seasons. Enjoy!**

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><p>Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan has never really been good at holding his anger in. He was actually famous around the BAU offices for punching walls and knocking over boxes in fits of fury. But that anger was nothing compared to feeling he had when he watched Hotch being led out of the room at the hands of Starson and Gordon.<p>

Hotch was his hero. Not that he would ever say that to his face, of course. Hotch had stayed strong, for the whole team. Even when the job had gotten too much. Hotch had always been serious, determined, and focused in his leadership of the team, and Morgan admired him for that. Even when Foyet killed Haley, Hotch stayed strong and that was something to look up to.

And then there was Reid. Secretly, Morgan was in awe at how the kid could handle so much in his life without breaking down at some point. But then again, Reid probably preferred to break down in seclusion. His own father abandoned him with the schizophrenic mother when he was ten for God's sake! Then he had to endure vicious bullying in school before he even hit his teenage years. He's talked down numerous UNSUBS in the past and has proved himself many times in the past and yet Reid still didn't feel strong enough to be on this team.

"They'll be fine," he heard Rossi tell him.

Morgan nodded and a ghost of a smile flittered across his face, "Yeah, they're strong."

Seaver sighed, "But being strong doesn't make you immortal."

"You know what?" Emily hissed at her, "You can just shut up! You haven't been on this team for more than three months and yet you walk around like you're all big and bad. But guess what. You're not. You're just a rookie who doesn't know what the hell she's talking about half the time!" she shouted angrily.

"Emily!" Rossi said.

Prentiss shrugged at Morgan and Rossi's shocked expressions, "Well, it's true!"

Seaver stood there, shocked that she had said that, "I-I'm sorry! I just… I was… Um…" she stuttered out an apology but Emily just glared at her.

Morgan sighed and looked over at Seaver, "It's alright. We're all just a little annoyed right now."

Seaver swallow hard and nodded but said nothing and kept glancing over at Prentiss nervously as if she was going to attack her with a knife.

Everyone sat there for what seemed like hours. They hadn't heard anything about Hotch or Reid and were beginning to fear for the worst. Nobody talked about them. Hell, nobody talked about anything. They all just stood around and glanced at each other every now and then just to make sure they were still alive and breathing.

Morgan sighed and sat down. What the hell were they suppose to do? Starson had them in a pretty tough spot right now with Hotch and Reid who knows where going through who knows what. Morgan was just beginning to drift off to sleep when he heard the door begin to creak open.

Every snapped into alertness immediately. Benny walked in with a very dazed looking Hotch.

"Hotch!" Morgan said as soon as he saw the condition his boss was in.

Hotch's clothes were slightly ruffled and his hair was shooting up in all directions. His eyes seemed to be unable to focus on anything and they darted around the room frantically as if he was preparing for a bomb to go off. When Benny pulled him along to his spot, Hotch stumbled along as if he had forgotten how to walk.

"What the hell did you do to him?" Morgan demanded. Emily, Seaver, and Rossi were all staring at Hotch with the same concerned and slightly frightened face Morgan was. Benny guided Hotch over to his chain and then securely locked Hotch back into place.

"Answer me!" Morgan practically begged. Benny turned to Morgan with an unreadable expression and then said, "He's a little broken, nothing to worry about." Then he hurried out of the room before the team could ask him any more questions.

Morgan rubbed his hand over his face and looked back over at his boss. Hotch was now sitting on the floor with his knees brought up to his chest and was slowly rocking back and forth like a frightened child. Morgan shared a look with Rossi and they basically said the same thing. _What did they do to Hotch?_

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><p>Pain. That was all he felt. An endless abyss of pain; whenever he tried to climb out of the black pit, it would keep pulling him back under. Drowning him with its black hands.<p>

"It's okay, honey," a female voice said to him. Reid thought back to all the female that could possibly be talking to him. Emily and Seaver were the only two he came up with. Although, he had been hoping it would be his mother or even JJ. They were the ones that gave him the nurturing love only a women could give.

"It's gonna be okay. I'm right here, honey," the mysterious women said again. He could already tell that it wasn't Seaver or Prentiss. They would never talk to him like that. This woman's voice was soothing; it wrapped him up and defended off the pain trying to get their grasps on him.

Reid groaned and tried to open his eyes, but they wouldn't comply with his request for vision. It took him a few tries, but he finally got his eyes to open. He hissed as a bright light assaulted his pupils. He blinked a few times to clear his vision and looked up into the face of an angel.

She had warm chocolate eyes that spread warmth through his body just by looking into them. Her brown hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail with a few curls hanging out and framing her small, elf-like face. He nose was small and slightly unturned, adding to the cute elf look. She looked to be in her mid twenties.

"Hey," she said softly and her voice sent shivers inside him. He simply stared up at her and she smiled nervously back at him. That was when Reid realized he was laying in a soft bed. What the hell? Where was he?

He quickly searched his mind for an explanation as to why he was laying in bad staring up at a beautiful woman. _The case, Florida, Michael Starson, the raid, the chains, the table, the knife… _It all came back to him and he instantly panicked. He tried to move but instantly regretted it when pain shot all through his body.

"Gah!" he exclaimed and felt a burning flame move through his body. The girl looked at him, startled, before putting her hand on his shoulder and tried to calm him.

"Easy, tiger," she said, "You don't need to be moving around. I was actually pretty surprised you were even still breathing when Mikey brought you to me. You had lost a lot of blood. Good thing Mikey missed any major organs, or else we would have had a major problem."

Reid looked down over his body and gasped. His shirt was gone and was replaced by at least three layers of bandages covering his whole chest. His arms had a layer of gauze wrapped around the area that Starson had sliced into him.

"Where's… m'team?" he gasped out.

"There probably still in the room they were in before. Unless Mikey took any of them out." She replied.

"Who're you?" Reid asked.

She smiled, "I'm Nicole. Mikey is my older brother. I'm the, uh, "doctor" you might say." She gave a nervous laugh and averted her eyes.

"Mmm…" Reid murmured out, not having enough energy to form words. His vision was beginning to fade around the edges and his whole body began to shut down.

Nicole smiled down at him, "Sleep," she commanded, "You need you rest."

Reid fought to stay awake but eventually gave into the darkness.

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><p><strong>I hope you guys liked Nicole. I tried to make her seem nice although I think she came off as kinda creepy... The next chapter will definately be more exciting. I've actually been planning it since the beginning, so I'm really looking forward to writing it. I'll give you a hint to what it's about: It involves psycological toture to each team member by bringing up... uncomfortable memories for them. That's all I'm gonna say! You'll just have to wait for tomorrow to see what I mean!<strong>

**REVIEW! Pretty please?**


	10. Sleepy Hotch

**Author's Note!**

**Okay so this chapter and chapter 11 were originally one chapter but I decided to cut it into two because of how long it was. So thats why nothing really happens in this chaper.**

**Anyways, who else watched Snake Eyes last night? I did! And I have to say, I absolutely loved how they sent Reid in the casino. They are finally starting to treat him like an equal agent and not looking down upon him. And I loved it when Reid said he was banned from casinos in Las Vegas ;D I was all like "Oh, just another reason to love him! He's banned from casinos!" Am I the only one who found that to be a turn on? Lol sorry, I'm rambling xD Enjoy!**

**I do not own Criminal Minds or the characters. All mistakes are my own and there are definately spoilers in this chapter.**

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><p>Reid slowly came around again. His body was still radiating pain with every twitch he made but it wasn't as bad as it originally was. <em>What is the team doing right now? <em>He wondered to himself, not opening his eyes just yet. _Was Starson… "playing" with them?_

Reid mentally shuddered at the thought. The team couldn't go through that. Ever. Hotch had already been through so much in his life; with losing Haley to The Reaper and basically giving up his whole entire life for his job. Rossi had seen too much in his lifetime for anyone could handle. Seeing the darkest minds of the human race for multiple decades had to take its tole. Right?

Morgan didn't deserve anything bad to happen to him. Even though his rough appearance may fool most people, he was probably the best friend that Reid had ever had. Not that he ever had many friends, of course. But Morgan was the protective big brother that picked on him from time to time but would also fight to the death for Reid. He didn't deserve this.

He and Prentiss didn't exactly get along very well in the beginning. Then again, she came onto the team during one of the darkest moments of Reid's life. With the drug addiction and the abandonment from Gideon, the man who had told him he would never leave him. But over the years, they had gotten closer. Not romantically in any way, but close enough to the point that Reid considered her to be his sister. He would die for her any day.

And then there was Seaver. Seaver hadn't been on the team that long now, but it was long enough to get to know her a little bit. Prentiss didn't seem to like her much, but Reid had guessed she was just depressed about JJ leaving. Rossi and Hotch just treated her like any other rookie agent: with a sharp eye and correcting tone. But Reid had sensed that Seaver had somehow found a little spot in Rossi. She was like the daughter Rossi never had (or particularly wanted, on some occasions). Morgan teased her just like the rest of the team but he was Morgan, and Morgan got along with everybody.

But Reid wasn't sure how he felt about Seaver. It was strange to him to watch her interact with the rest of the team; they weren't nearly as protective over her as they were for him the first couple years he was in the Beau. But Reid finally understood why the team had protected them how they did. Because Reid now felt the same way about Seaver. There were no romantic feelings, it wasn't like that. But he regarded her as a little sister of sorts, feeling angry when she's upset and wanting to protect her from the world. It was odd for Reid to feel protective over someone, let alone a member of his team.

Reid was pulled from his thought when he heard the sound of a door opening.

"Hey," he heard Nicole's voice say to him. Reid blinked open his eyes and winced slightly when the bright light cut through his vision. Nicole eyed him and sighed sadly, "I wish I could help you."

Reid was taken aback by the statement. _She wanted to help him? _He looked over at Nicole. She was wearing cut-off jean shorts with a black tank-top and black Converse. Her hair hung down just past her shoulders and stuck out in untamed curls. Her expression of sadness seemed genuine and Reid sensed that she actually did mean what she had said.

"You can help me, "Reid said slowly, "You can get me and my team out of here."

Nicole bit her lip and shook her head, her curly hair shifting across her shoulders, "I can't. Mikey, he'll…" She trailed off with her voice close to tears.

There it was. Fear. The reason that she was paralyzed from freeing them. Reid opened his mouth to say something but Nicole beat him to it.

"I have to take you back to the room now," Nicole said.

"I don't think I can walk," Reid said. It wasn't a lie either, the thought of him walking in the state he was in now made him want to puke.

"Um… Well, if I don't Mikey'll get angry and…" she trailed off and shivered, obviously thinking of the things Starson would do to her if she disobeyed him. Reid swallowed hard and he noticed how dry his throat had become. _When was the last time he had something to drink? _

"I… I'll try," Reid said to her.

Nicole licked her lips and nodded, "Okay."

She pushed her hair behind her ears and walked closer to the edge of the bed. Reid took three deep breaths before pushing himself up onto his elbows. Big mistake.

Pain shot like an electric current all the way from his neck to his toes. He gasped out but remained sitting up. Nicole reached out and slid her arms around his thin shoulders.

"It's okay, I got you." She reassured him but he could hear the slight panic in her voice.

He took another few deep breaths and slung his feet off the bed. _Okay, no major pains yet. So far so good. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. _

He mentally coached himself as he stood shakily to his feet and leaned heavily onto Nicole. Pain was shooting erratically up and down his body and he was taking short gasps of air. Nicole was only about 5'5 and couldn't weight more than 115 pounds so she had a little trouble holding up his weight but still stood her ground.

"Okay, so can you walk?" Nicole asked him.

"Uh…" was all Reid could manage out. Apparently, Nicole took that as an 'okay' and hesitantly took a step forward. Then another. Then another. Reid half-walked, half-dragged behind her.

Reid's whole body felt like it was on fire. Black spots danced around in his eyes and he prayed that he didn't pass out. Every step he took felt like another knife was stabbing into his abdomen. Nicole walked him out the door of the room and down the hall. Luckily, the cell his team was being held in was only about three doors down.

Nicole stopped at the door and pulled a key chain out of her back pocket. She quickly unlocked the door and stuffed the keys back down into her pockets. She reached out and turned the door knob and led Reid inside.

Reid was on the verge of blacking out but managed to give, what he hoped to be, a reassuring look to his team members. He heard Seaver and Prentiss gasp at the bandages covering his pale chest. He heard Rossi's voice coming from somewhere but his brain wasn't really making a connection as to what the words he was saying meant. He didn't hear anything from Hotch or Morgan and he secretly hoped they were still in the room.

Nicole led him over to his spot in the room and slowly lowered him to the ground. Reid sat on the ground and blinked several time to try to clear his vision while Nicole locked his cuff into place. Nicole eyed Reid over and frowned, "I think we ripped some of your stitches."

Reid looked down at his chest and sure enough there were small spots of blood on the white fabric where the blood from the open wounds seeped through. He looked back up at Nicole who was already standing back up and heading over to the door.

"Stitches?" he heard Morgan say in anger. Relief flooded through Reid when he realized his friend was still here.

Nicole simply ignored him and walked out of the door. Nobody said anything until they heard the lock on the door click into place.

"What the hell did they do to you, man?" he heard Morgan ask. Reid used his remaining energy to turn his head towards him. Morgan was staring at his with wide, concerned eyes. Reid simply groaned in response, not having enough energy to reply with words.

His whole body ached with the kind of pain that just made your insides inch. Especially his chest area. So far, the whole Tobias ordeal was beginning to look like a walk in the park compared to this. Reid sighed and closed his eyes, and let himself drift off into a pain induced sleep.


	11. Unwanted Memories

**Author's Note!**

**Okay, THIS is the chapter that I've been waiting to write. I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out. Please, enjoy! It took me FOREVER to write! Also, not everything in here really happened in the show, I made most of them up. So PLEASE don't go all "That's not true!" Yes, I know. It's fiction and I can do what I want. Sorry if I confused you, once you read it you'll understand what I'm talking about. **

**I don't won Criminal Minds or the characters. All mistakes are my own. Spoilers. Language. Yeah...**

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><p>Reid drifted awake to the sound of voices. His team's voices, to be exact. Reid moaned as a wave of nausea hit him. His eyes flew open and he rolled over onto him side, ignoring the painful bursts of flames in his abdomen.<p>

He sat up on his knees and began to dry heave, having nothing in his stomach to vomit up. The contraction of the muscles only made the pain worsen and he groaned. When the heaving finally stopped, Reid pulled himself into a sitting position; his eyes screwed shut, and hissed in pain.

Reid sat absolutely still and tried to calm his breathing.

"Reid," Morgan said to him, "You okay, kid?" Reid opened his eyes and looked at Morgan and then looked around the room to assess his team.

Seaver was sitting on the floor, picking mindlessly at her grey shirt. She looked scared but unharmed. Emily looked summarily like Seaver, except she was sporting a dark blue bruise on the side of her cheek. As Reid looked closer he realized that her breathing was slightly off. Rossi was looking at him with the same concerned expression Morgan had. Reid's eyes wandered over to where Hotch was and were surprised at what he found.

Hotch was curled up on his side, sleeping. Hotch was sleeping? Usually he was the one fighting off the sleep and urging everyone else to get rest. But Hotch sleeping meant something was terribly wrong.

"Uh, Morgan? What's up with Hotch?" he asked. Seaver and Emily looked over, surprised to hear Reid's voice.

Morgan sighed and shook his head, "Starson came in about two hours after he took you. He took Hotch out of the room. They were gone for what? Four? Five hours? Anyways, when he got back, he was totally cationic. He looked so freaked out…" Morgan trailed off and shook his head, "He wouldn't even talk to us for about an hour. He just sat there, staring off into space. Then he finally started talking to us." Morgan stopped there and his hands balled up into fists.

"What happened?" Reid asked, softly.

Morgan sighed, "He said that Starson locked him in a coffin full of spider."

Reid sat there in shock. Spiders? There were so many things he had thought that could have happened, but that hadn't even crossed his mind.

"Why spiders?" Reid finally asked.

"I guess Hotch is afraid of spider?"Morgan guessed.

Reid decided to drop the subject, feeling uncomfortable talking about his boss.

"What happened to Prentiss?" Reid asked. Emily's head snapped up at the sound of her voice.

Morgan glanced over at her before looking back to Reid, "I don't know, man. That Gordon guy took her a couple of hours ago but she won't tell us what happened."

Reid looked over at Prentiss. Her head was bowed as she looked down into her lap, her dark hair creating a shield between them. Reid racked his mind for any ideas of what have might have happened to her when a disturbing realization came to him.

All the female victims were raped.

"Emily…" Reid began carefully but was interrupted by the sound of static and then a voice saying, "Hello, agents."

Everyone froze at the voice except Hotch who woke up and immediately snapped into alert. Hotch looked over at Reid and his eyes widened when he took in Reid's appearance.

"Well, I'm sure you're all very happy to all be together again," the voice that sounded like Starson said. Reid's eyes scanned the room to look for where his voice could be coming from and then he saw it. A few feet above Rossi's head was a small black speaker.

"There," Reid said and pointed over at the speaker. The team looked up at it and wore grim faces.

"What do you want?" Morgan shouted into the air.

The soft sound of Starson's laughter came out of the speaker and a shiver went down Reid's spine, "Manners, Agent Morgan, manners. I'm actually here to tell you that the people you are trying to protect aren't at all who they seem to be."

Morgan glared at the speaker and then looked over the team who were all looked around, anxiously. _What the hell was he talking about?_

"Well, I suppose I should start with the newest member of your team," Starson continued and Seaver stiffened.

"Special Agent Ashley Seaver. Apparently you had same daddy issues growing up, huh?" Starson began and Seaver pale, "says here that he killed 25 women before you were even a teenager. But that's not all is it? When you were nine years old, you walked in on your father stabbing a woman. What did you do? Nothing! You just stood there and watched that woman being killed! How did that make you feel? Just standing there knowing you could save that lady but choosing not to?"

Starson paused and the team looked at Seaver in shock. She did _what? _Seaver slowly sunk to the floor and her breathing became more forced.

"And then there was an incident in high school," Starson continued to psychologically torture Seaver, "A star football player… what was his name? Chase! Apparently, you and Chase had a history together, huh? Being caught in closets and under the stairs, Well, BAU team, Chase decided he was done playing with Ashley, here, and went and dumped her. And you know what she did?" Starson asked them.

Seaver was hyperventilating by then. _How the fuck did he know that about her? _She thought angrily to herself.

"Shut up!" she screamed at the ceiling and the team just watched in shock as their newest member's secrets became thrust into the spotlight.

"She went into the locker room and planted steroid pills in his bag," Starson answered his own question, "Chase was kicked off the football team and no college wanted to accept a player that used steroids so he never got a scholarship. Ashley ruined his whole entire life."

Starson stopped talking and listened to the sound of Seaver breaking down.

"Seaver. Ashley, honey," Emily said to her, "You need to breathe."

"Ah, and then there's Miss Emily Prentiss," Starson said and Emily froze.

"You were a little, ah, wild child weren't you?" Starson said and the team could practically hear the smile in his voice, "You became pregnant at fifteen and had an abortion. An abortion? I thought you had more class than that, Emily. A couple of years later, you were arrested for assault. You broke four of a girl's ribs and gave her a serious concussion. She was in the hospital for some time, all because she called you a slut."

Emily wasn't moving at all and her eyes were fixed on a point above Seaver's head. The team stared at her in shock._ She had an abortion?_

"Then when you were 25, you were arrested again for trespassing. I bet your team didn't know you had such a record, did they Emily?" Starson said in an amused tone. Emily remained unresponsive.

"How did you know that?" Emily suddenly hissed through clenched teeth but Starson didn't answer her question.

"And now that brings me to Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi!" Starson said gleefully but Rossi's expression remained neutral.

"A couple years back, there was a girl. Oh, what was it? Ah, yes. Zoe," Starson began and Rossi's mask slipped a tiny bit to reveal slight panic, "She only wanted to impress you, David. She sought you out to try to tell you about a serial killer and yet you blew her off. You told her to go off on her own and that was what caused her death. You led that poor girl straight into the ground. How did that feel? To know that you ended one's life before it even really started?"

Rossi's mask remains on his face but the trained profiler eyes of his team could tell he was slipping. None of the team blamed him for that poor girl's death but that didn't stop Rossi from blaming himself.

"Dave, what happened then was not your fault," Hotch told him sternly, "We've all made mistakes in the past, clearly, but we move past them."

Rossi looked up at Hotch and nodded silently.

"Oh, Agent Hotchner!" Starson's voice boomed, "It's so good to hear that you're not completely shell shocked."

Hotch stiffened when the UNSUB mentioned his name and prepared himself for what was going to happen next.

"Aaron Hotchner, you had an exciting life growing up. From mean ol' daddy who came home drunk and beat the shit out of you. For years, your father beat you and your brother. On more than one occasion, you landed in the hospital. Here's to name a few injuries; a spiral bone fracture, multiply broken ribs, other broken bones, numerous cuts and bruises. And then you learn that your old man has been sleeping with at least four other women beside your momma? Gee, harsh. Maybe he just didn't love you." Starson said.

Everyone eyes were glued to Hotch to watch his reaction. Everyone, if they wanted to admit it or not, had suspected Hotch was abused as a child but they would have never have guessed it was that bad. Hotch's hands balled up into fists and he looked like he desperately wanted to punch something.

"You tried so hard though," Starson continued, "To protect you team. Your _family. _But yet, you failed at that too. First, your job caused the tragic death of your wife. She begged, _begged, _you to spend more time with her and less time on the job. But you refused. Eventually, that decision came back to kill her. Literally. How did it feel to listen to your wife get murdered over the phone?"

The team jumped at the sound of Hotch's fist slamming into the wall.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH! I SWEAR IF YOU MENTION HER AGAIN, I'LL RIP YOUR THROAT OUT!" Hotch screamed at the speaker and the team felt the same anger build inside them. How dare he? Speak to them like that?

Starson laughed over the intercom, "Well, I'll just have to watch my mouth, won't I? I guess that's my cue to move on to the next person."

Everyone stiffened and glanced from Morgan and Reid and wondered who was next. Reid felt panic build up in his chest. _How much did he know about him? Well, obviously, he knows a lot more about them than he should. He even knew things that they didn't know about each other. But what if he mentions… that? _Reid shuddered at the thought of his most private secrets meeting the ears of his team members.

"So, Derek Morgan," Starson began and Morgan's eyes blazed with anger, "What could I possibly know about you that nobody else does? Well, it appears that you little secret of sexual abuse as a child isn't exactly a secret anymore. I have to admit, I'm surprised at the lack of secrets you hide."

Morgan hissed through his teeth at the mention of his childhood but didn't say anything.

"But I'm guessing you never told anyone about Stella, did you?" Starson suddenly asked and Morgan stiffened and then suddenly shouted, "How the _hell _did you _know _about that?"

Starson made a 'tsk' sound, "You mustn't interrupt the story, Derek." Morgan sighed angrily out of his nose and the rest of the team sat in silence wondering who Stella was but then decided that they didn't want to know.

"Stella was Derek's high school sweet heart." Starson began his story, "But, unfortunately, they got separated when they went to college. Five years later, Derek runs into Stella at the store. But Stella reveals some, ah, news. Can you guess what it was?"

The team glanced nervously at each other and then looked back up at Morgan who as seeing red with anger.

"No? Well, apparently Stella was getting married! But poor Derek here still had feelings for the girl. So what does he do? He goes over to her house and beats her fiancée with a baseball bat." Starson finished and Seaver couldn't suppress a gasp of suprise.

Morgan beat him with a… _baseball bat? _The team stared at him with wide eyes. Morgan closed his eyes and took a shaky breath and then looked up at his team. His eyes were sad, angry, and _broken. _The team realized that they didn't really know all about each other after all. Even the closest knit of families had their holes, and between those holes, some of the darkest secrets can fall threw to never be seen again.

Reid looked over his team members with new eyes. His team looked down at their feet, ashamed. Then Reid realized he was the only one left. He had an idea of what Starson would mention and feared that his team would no longer love him once they knew what he was hiding. They will probably tell him that it was the past and it didn't change how they felt about him. Easy for them to say, they didn't kill somebody.

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><p><strong>Bu Bu BUUUUUM! WHAT could Reid be talking about? Killed somebody? *Gasp* Heh heh I feel so evil right now... I seriously hoped you enjoyed this chapter as I enjoyed writing it. Sorry if the dialogue confused you a bit, I tried to make it as clear as possible. <strong>

**I'll try to post tomorrow! Pleeaaasssee review! I worked so hard for you enjoyment!**


	12. The Accident

**Author's Note!**

**Okay so the reason I didn't post yesterday was because every time I tried to log in, it kept telling me "error". So yeah... Did that happen to anyone else? And then when I logged on this morning I had no problems. Oh, well...**

**This chaper is kinda sad :,( It's not very long but I'll most likely post another chapter later today. Possibly two more chapter if I'm feeling up to it, just 'casue I love you guys so much ;D**

**I own nothing. All mistakes are my own. Spoilers. I think there's language...? Enjoy!**

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><p>"And then that leaves us with Dr. Reid," Starson said and Reid saw all the eyes of his teams members land on him, in curiosity and fear of what they were going to hear about Reid. Reid closed his eyes and took a deep breath to prepare himself for the inevitable.<p>

"Well, first there are the basics. Your father left you when you were ten with a schizophrenic mother to care for. At home, you were more of the parental figure as oppose to the child. And then there was school. High school at age twelve, right? Geez, they ate you alive! But the team already knew that, right? But I bet they don't know about Rachel, now did they?" Starson stopped talking and let his words sink in.

Reid took a sharp in take of breath. _He didn't know about that. He COULN'T know about that! Rachel. His Rachel…_

"Reid," Morgan said in a calming voice and Reid realized he was beginning to hyperventilate, "You need to breathe. Who was Rachel?"

Starson's laughter filled the room and the whole team cringed, "Who was Rachel? Well, Agent Morgan, Rachel Bolton was Dr. Reid's first and probably only love. But, sadly, he killed her before they could really have a chance at a family."

"I did _not _kill her!" Reid suddenly shouted.

"On purpose," Starson added to Reid's sentence, "But you killed her, nonetheless."

Reid swallowed hard and shook his head frantically, "No, no, no… That's not true!"

The sound of Starson's sigh came over the intercom, "Agents, I bet you're wondering what Dr. Reid and I could be talking about. Well, this is how it goes. When Spencer was eight, Rachel Bolton moved in the house next door. She and Spencer immediately bonded. Later on Spencer found out that her daddy was an abusive alcoholic who took pleasure in beating the shit out of her. Kind of like Agent Hotchner and his daddy. Well, being the genius he is, Spencer knew something was wrong when Rachel showed up to school covered in bruises and broken bones. He eventually managed to get the truth out of her. Spencer offered to let her stay at his house when ever her dad got really bad, and she greatly accepted the offer."

Starson paused before continuing, "When Spencer turned fifteen, he and Rachel decided to give a romantic relationship a chance. As you can imagine, the two had grow incredibly close and a romantic relationship almost seemed inevitable. And things were going great until one fateful day when they were seventeen and her daddy caught them together in one of the deserts close to their neighborhood."

Starson stopped talking and let the team listen in shock. Reid had brought his knees up to his chest and was slowly rocked back and forth in attempt to calm himself. The rest of the team was deathly quiet, hanging off of every word being said.

"Of course, mean old Mr. Bolton was beyond angry. And he had his hunting rifle with him. He told Spencer and Rachel to get on their knees as he put a gun to Spencer's head. He told him that if he so much as looked in his daughter's direction, he would come to his house and put a bullet between his eyes. Who was to doubt that he wouldn't? Well, Mr. Bolton took his daughter and drove home. Spencer didn't even look in Rachel's direction, fearing it would be the end of his and her life. Three months late after no contact with each other, Rachel gives some very, er, shocking news. Can you guess what it was?" Starson asked the team.

The team was silent until Prentiss gasped.

"Oh, no… She was pregnant." Emily said in a voice just about a whisper. The team looked over at Reid in shock. She was right.

"Oh, God, man…" Morgan breathed in disbelief.

Starson laughed softly, "Emily's right. Rachel Bolton was pregnant with Spencer Reid's baby. You can probably imagine how scared she was. Especially if her _dad _found out…" Starson trailed off dramatically and Reid heard Hotch curse under his breath.

By now, Reid had tears steadily streaming down his face.

"So Spencer asked her to run away with him. He would give up everything he had ever worked for to give her and the baby a safe life away from her father. She agreed. So he took his car and they snuck away. Two hours later, on the road to Washington, they had a, ah, accident." Starson said, "The baby was killed on impact. Rachel bled to death on the way to the hospital. And do you want to know the worst part? Spencer was the driver responsible for the accident. Is that why you don't drive anymore, Dr. Reid?"

Reid wiped angrily at the tears that were cascading down his cheeks and didn't answer the question. He could hear Seaver crying along with him and the soft, comforting words of Morgan from his left. But he didn't care. He didn't want their sympathy. It was his fault she was dead. He killed her. And her baby. End of story.

"You suffered from six broken ribs, a collapsed lung, severe blood loss, a concussion, and both of your legs and your right arm were broken. You made a full recovery. Over the next two years, you were in the hospital three times for attempted suicide." Starson continued, "When you were twenty, you stood on the edge of a ten story building, ready to end it all. You stood there for what? Eight? Nine hours? Until a man came up there. He told you that you were important to this world and you haven't fulfilled your purpose of life yet. That it wasn't your time to go. You two talked for three hours until he was finally able to coax you away from the edge. He saved your life that day. That man's name was Jason Gideon."

Reid heard his team gasp in surprise.

"Jason offered you a second chance at life. He helped you into the BAU and set you straight. He promised you he would always be there and help you along. But then he left. Just like your daddy and Elle. I think I'm starting to see a pattern here, Spencer. Maybe people just don't love you enough to stay. Maybe they just get too fed up with the kid who just doesn't shut up. What do you think?" Starson's voice had taken a hard edge to it.

"Please, stop…" Reid murmured into his hands. Thankfully, it did stop. The team and Reid all heard the delighted laugh of Starson and then the satisfied 'click' of the mic turning off. The whole team let out a breath they didn't realize they were holding.

"Okay," Rossi began, "I think we all have a little explaining to do."

That was an understatement.


	13. Pain is Immortal

**Author's Note!**

**I'm baaaack! Again. I should probably warn you. this chapter is pretty depressing. I even teared up a bit when Reid was talking. And for those wondering what Garcia, JJ, and everyone else is doing: It shall all be explained in the ending. You'll know where everyone was and what they were doing and why they were doing it. **

**Anyways, if you guys have time, check out gothina234's fics. They are epic! Even though some of them are a little strange, they're really cool. Oh, well, please enjoy this chapter!**

**I don't own Criminal Minds or the characters. All mistakes are my own. Uh, I don't think there are any spoiler but watch out for 'em. **

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><p>"I was nine and I got home early from school one day," Seaver began her story, "Mom's car wasn't out front so it was just me and dad. I walked inside and I could hear… noises coming from our basement. I got curious so I decided to go see what it was. Dad had a rule that I was never <em>ever <em>allowed in the basement but I was feeling brave that day."

Seaver paused and took a shaky breath.

"I tried to be as quiet as possible as I crept down the stairs. Dad had his back to me and there was a woman lying on the ground. There was so much blood… I just froze. I wanted to help her. Honest. But I just couldn't move. It was like I was rooted to the spot." Seaver's words became rushed and she started breathing faster.

"Ashley, sweetie, it wasn't your fault. You were _nine_," Rossi said. Seaver looked up at him with bleary eyes and nodded slowly.

"Then dad stood up. I guess I snapped out of my trance and ran back up stairs. He never found out that I saw that," Seaver concluded her story. Everyone sat in silence until Hotch spoke up, "What happened with the Chase incident?"

Seaver laughed bitterly, "Chase Garson was an asshole. He told everyone in school I was a sleep-around slut and I decided that he should be punished for what he did."

"So you put steroids in his bag," Morgan stated.

Seaver nodded, "And he deserved it, too."

"Prentiss?" Hotch asked.

Emily sighed and shook her head, "Do I _really_ need to explain?"

Hotch was quiet for a moment and then shook his head, "I won't force you to. But it would be appreciated if you did."

Prentiss glanced around the room at her friend's faces and then looked back to Hotch, "I'll pass."

"Morgan?" Hotch asked next, deliberately skipping over himself and Rossi. Himself because he obviously wasn't going to explain his father to the team. Rossi because there was nothing to explain.

Morgan swallowed hard, "Stella and I met in the tenth grade and we immediately clicked. We dated all through school until college rolled around. She wanted to become an actress while I had my eyes set on becoming a police officer. We tried to keep in touch but… the whole 'long-distance' relationship thing didn't really work out and we just stopped talking to each other."

Everyone looked at him sympathetically and urged him to continue.

"Then I ran into Stella at the corner store down the road from my house. Turns out she was working to become a vet in D.C. We meet up for lunch the next day and she tells me she's getting married." Morgan continued, "I had Garcia look up the guy and it turns out he had a record for rape and assault on women. I was just… I dunno… angry? I went straight to her house to tell her but… he was there too. We started fighting and then I got a hold of a baseball bat and…" he trailed off and the team already knew what happened after that.

Morgan wiped at his eyes although no tears fell. Reid felt his own eyes begin to water. His friend- no, his _brother_- was being hurt right in front of him and there was nothing he could do about it. He looked down at his hands and he felt eye one's eyes slowly turn on him.

"Reid?" Hotch asked quietly. He knew they expected him to explain but he just couldn't bring himself to it. It was all just too painful. He took a deep breath and looked up at his team members; the people he considered to be his family and support when nobody was there for him. _Rachel would love them…_

"When I was eight, a new family moved in next door next to my house," Reid began his story, "I never really had any friends and my dad told me that 'the cute girl next door' could probably use someone to show her around the neighborhood. I was finally talked into talking to her but I was just so nervous." Reid smiled slightly at the memory and the rest of the team smiled themselves.

"I went over next door and knocked on the door and she answered. She was… God, was she beautiful. She had the most captivating blue eyes…" Reid trailed off and shook his head, "I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk and I could show her around. She said yes and we went. I stuttered to whole time." Reid gave a dry laugh and the team smiled.

"And then we became friends. She was a couple grades lower than me, of course, but she still went to the same school as me. She… she knew about the bullying. She even helped me out a few times when it got really bad. She could punch _pretty _hard for a skinny little eleven year old. But after a while, Rach started coming to school with bruises on her arms. I asked her where she got them but she always avoided my questions. But after a while it got worse. One time, she came to school with her whole body black and blue." Reid's voice had taken a hard edge of anger that the team had never heard before.

"When we were thirteen, she finally admitted to me that her father abused her. I told her that whenever things got bad, she could stay at my house. And she did. Almost every night. She would sneak out of her bedroom window and come sleep in my bed with me." Reid hesitated after a moment then continued, "As we got older, things got a little more… awkward sleeping in the same bed together as 'just friends'."

Reid looked up and met the eyes of his team members, "When we were fifteen, she came over to my house like she did every night but this time it was… different. She kept fidgeting and wouldn't look me in the eyes. I asked her what was wrong and that's when she told me that she was in love with me."

Reid felt a stray tear run down his cheek as he continued, "And I loved her, too. We decided to try out a romantic relationship and thing went great. It was almost as if we were made for each other. She loved reading and painting. She said painting allowed her feeling to flow freely without restrictions. She painted me a lot in her pictures. But her dad could _never _find out about us. If he did, he wouldn't hesitate to kill me. He was crazy."

Reid let out a bitter laugh, "That's another thing we had in common: a crazy parent."

Morgan opened his mouth to say something but Reid held up his hand to stop him, "Our relationship moved along quickly." He continued, "Sex came naturally to us. But we had to be extra careful, becoming pregnant was not an option for her. When we were seventeen, we decided to go out to the desert near our neighborhood for a walk. Well… two seventeen-year-olds in a secluded spot in the desert, you can kind of guess where things started heading."

Reid could hear some of the members of his team give a dry laugh before he continued, "Then she said she saw someone coming. As the person got closer, she realized it was her dad. Naturally, we started freaking out. That's when we realized he had his gun with him. That was probably the most scariest moment of my life up until then."

Reid looked at his team and he saw them all wear the same sad expression. Except Morgan, who looked angry with the world.

"Rachel was only wearing a tank-top and her underwear, I didn't have my shirt on," Reid gave another pain filled laugh, "You can only imagine the look of hatred in her father's eyes when he saw us. He pointed the gun at us and told us to get on our knees. He pushed the gun up to my cheek and told me if I was to even glance in her direction, he would come to my house and kill me. I had no reason to believe he wouldn't do it. Rach started crying and I tried to reach for her but her dad pointed the gun at Rachel and I stopped. He told her that if she even though about seeing me, he would kill her _and _me. That's when he told her to go back home. I seriously thought he was going to shoot me once she left."

The tears stopped falling from Reid's eyes and were replaced by hatred, "Rachel screamed at him but I eventually talked her into leaving. If he was going to kill me, Rachel didn't need to be there. Rachel's dad put away his gun and just started beating me. It was almost to the point I had wished he did shoot me instead. After that, I never looked at Rachel. She returned the act towards me. It just hurt, you know? I loved her and I saw her every day. It was like the world was trying to punish me for something."

The tears began to fall off his cheeks again, "Three months later, Rachel calls me. I was away at college in a whole different state when she did. She just sounded so scared… I asked her what happened. I thought her dad had raped her, or something. But then she told me she was pregnant. I… I asked her to run away with me. We were both 18 by then so we were legally allowed to go and she agreed without hesitation. That night, I drove 13 hours to Las Vegas and then we left. We decided to go to D.C. I dunno why, it just seemed logical at the time. We were almost there when a cop car started following us. Rach told me not to stop and I… I just lost control of the car. We spun off the road and hit this tree…" He was sobbing now.

"It's okay, Reid," Hotch said softly, "You can stop now."

Reid shook his head and decided to plow through the end of the story, "The doctors said that the baby was killed on impact. Rach… she… she bled to death on the way to the hospital. Apparently, a tree branch went through the windshield and it… went right through her. Every day after that, I asked myself why. Why wasn't I killed? Was God punishing me for loving her? For believing that someone could love me? I just… I just wanted to die."

Reid rubbed his hands over his face and through his hair, "And I tried to kill myself. The first time, I slit my wrists. My neighbor found me in my bathroom bleeding out and called 911. I barely survived. The second time I s… I slit my wrists…. again. I survived." Reid's mouth twitched up at the edges, "I started to think that maybe Rachel was keeping me alive for some reason. And I still think that today. Considering all the life-threatening situations I've been in, it actually seems like I have a guardian angel somewhere."

His team smiled sadly at him. Reid looked up and saw that Seaver and Prentiss were crying along with him. Rossi was looking over him with a unreadable expression and Hotch looked… understanding. Probably because he went through losing Haley. Morgan looked like he was barely containing his emotions.

"The third time I, uh… I jumped out in front of a truck," Reid said hesitantly and he team gaped at him in shock, "I wanted to see if… if Rachel was really looking out for me. I had four broken ribs, a broken leg, a serious concussion, and severe internal damage. The doctors said it was a miracle I survived. A _miracle. _Can you believe it? He thought it was a _miracle _that I had to live every day in pain. Both physically and mentally. Then I really decided to end it. I went up to the top of my apartment building and just stood on the ledge. Just stood there, looking out over the city. It started getting dark when I heard someone come up behind me. It was Gideon. I told him all about Rachel and the suicide attempts and the angel… He managed to talk me down. He helped me put my life back on track and I… I owe him my life for that."

Reid finished talking and wiped the stray tears from his face. His team didn't say anything to him; there was nothing they could say. None of them had ever even imagined such a thing could have happened to Reid.

"I'm sorry, kid," Morgan said quietly.

Reid smiled up slightly at him and replied, "It was a long time ago."

But really, the pain was immortal.

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><p><strong>The song Someone, Somewhere by Asking Alexandria was a slight inspiration for this chapter's mood. Hope you enjoyed! There's going to more PHYSICAL torture in the next chapter! I'll give you a hint about it: It's about Seaver and Reid. That's all I'm gonna say.<strong>

**REVIEW! Perty pwease with a cherrwy on towp? ;D Lol**


	14. Ham and Cheese

**Author's Note!**

**Yeah, yeah I know I said there would be physical torture in here. I, uh, lied? Sorry, I'm just WAY more tired than I expected myself to be at 7:06PM lol. This chapter was originally going to be long and filled with bloody goodness BUT I'm barely able to keep myself awake at this point. It's kinda strange though since I usually go to bed in the AM. Oh, well, I guess my lack of sleep is catching up to me. Sorry this chapter may not be as good, my tiredness may affect my writing lol. **

**I own nothing! All mistakes are my own. Language. Uh, possible spoilers. Enjoy!**

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><p>"I wonder what Garcia's doing right now," Morgan said, somewhat randomly.<p>

"Oh, God," Prentiss said, "She's probably hysterical!"

"I can't even think about that right now," Seaver said and everyone glanced over at her.

"What about JJ?" Reid brought up, "She's probably just as bad."

"They probably haven't slept in… how long have we been here?" Rossi asked.

Nobody answered immediately. Nobody knew exactly how long they had been here. Suddenly, the room was filled with a loud rumbling sound. Reid's face flushed with embarrassment and he covered his rumbling stomach.

"When was the last time any of you ate?" Hotch asked them in his signature hard tone.

"Uh… Rossi, Seaver, Emily, and I all ate breakfast at the police station the day we were taken," Morgan answered, "But Reid said he wasn't hungry so he hasn't had any food in at least the last three days."

Hotch sighed, "We're all going to need food and water soon."

As if on cue, the door creaked open and Nicole walked in with a tray of water bottles, sandwiches, and medical supplies such as gauze and anti-biotic ointment. Her curly hair was pulled back into a tight bun and she was wearing worn jeans with cowboy boots.

"I hope you all like ham and cheese," Nicole said casually as she walked over and sat the tray on top of the box in the center of the room.

"What's your name?" Morgan asked.

"Nicole." She said and gave no other explanation.

Nicole grabbed a sandwich and water bottle and walked over to Seaver.

"Here you go," Nicole said as she held out the food.

Seaver eyed her warily, glanced at Hotch, and then took the food and water out of her hands. Nicole walked over to the tray and repeated the action of grabbing and handing off sandwiches and water until everyone had some except Reid.

Nicole walked back to the tray and grabbed the gauze and ointment and walked back over to Reid. Reid wrapped his arms around his torso as she walked up closer to him. The movement didn't go unnoticed by Nicole who frowned at him.

"You need to let me help," Nicole said softly as she knelt down to his spot on the floor.

Reid's eyes slid over to Hotch who gave him a tiny nod. Reid sighed and pulled his arms away from his body. Nicole gave him a small smile before reaching forward and stripping away the now blood stained bandages.

Reid hissed in pain at the unwanted touch. Morgan looked over at Reid with a pained expression on his face. Reid tried to give him a reassuring smile but it came off as a grimace.

Nicole pulled the last of the bandages and a loud gasp came from the BAU team. Reid looked down at his chest and frowned. His pale chest was covered with jagged, angry looking purple stitching lines. Around every stitch, were splotches of red swirling around in a delicate looking pattern. It kind of looked like something out of a painting.

Nicole sat back on her heels and frowned, "This may sting a little." She took the anti-biotic ointment and slathered a little around each stitching. At first, the cool substance felt soothing on Reid's skin. Then it started burning. Reid took a sharp intake of breath and bit the inside of his cheek to keep from crying out.

"Sorry," Nicole mumbled as she slathered the last stab with the cream. Nicole grabbed the gauze next and looked at Reid.

"Um…" she said nervously, "You need to lift your arms."

"Oh… right" Reid mumbled, still trying not to cry in pain. He slowly raised his arms from his body and winced in pain at the slight movement.

Nicole started wrapping Reid's torso with a clean layer of gauze. After a couple of minute Nicole sighed and took her hands away from Reid chest, "All done."

Nicole stood up and walked over to the tray and grabbed Reid's sandwich and water. She quickly walked back over to Reid and handed him the food and then hurried out the room.

"Well… she's something else." Rossi said as he eyes the sandwich in his hand.

"You think she could be useful?" Seaver asked.

Rossi shrugged, "Wouldn't hurt to try and talk to her."

Reid eyed the sandwich in his hand. He knew that it could be poisoned or something but the knowing hunger in his stomach was really starting to annoy him. _Oh, what the hell. _He brought the sandwich up to his mouth and took a bite.

"Reid!" Hotch scolded.

"What?" Reid asked all too innocently, "I was hungry!"

"That could have been poisoned!" Prentiss exclaimed.

"I was hungry!" Reid repeated as if it made all the sense in the world to him.

"Reid," Hotch said.

Reid raised his eyebrows at Hotch and then slowly, dramatically, brought the sandwich back up to his mouth and took a bite.

"Reid!" Emily said

Reid could have almost laughed at the expression on their faces. But his good mood was cut short when the door opened back up again. Starson and Benny stepped into the room.

Starson smiled slightly at the team, "I hope you're all enjoying you stay."

"Go to hell," Morgan growled.

Starson ignored him and walked over to Seaver. He knelt down to her level and smiled wickedly, "Hey there, Blondie. I got a feeling that we're gonna get to know each other _very _well." Starson reached out and ran his finger down the side of Seaver's face. She cringed away from the touch.

"Don't touch her!" Emily shouted at him.

Starson ignored her and grabbed a key out of his back pocket and unlocked Seaver's ankle cuff. Starson grabbed her forearm roughly and the turned to Benny. "Get the kid," Starson commanded him and tossed the key at Benny.

Benny caught the key in mid-air and then turned to Reid. He knelt down and unlocked his cuff and dragged him up to his feet. Reid cried out in pain at the rough movement and spots danced in front of his eyes. Reid felt himself being pushed towards the doors.

"Hey! Where are you taking them?" Morgan demanded as he watched Reid and Seaver being pushed out the doors. The only answer he received was the sound of the door being shut.

"Damn it!" he shouted.

"Morgan, calm down," Hotch said to him.

Morgan exhaled loudly through his nose and closed his eyes. He was angry He was _beyond _angry.

Everyone was quiet for the whole time. None of them could think of anything to say. There were no comforting words. No one promising they would come back. Because this time, they may not.

They sat there for what seemed like hours. They didn't hear any screams or shouts and they weren't exactly sure if that was a good or bad thing. Suddenly, the door to the room flew open and Benny shoved a crying Seaver in.

Her shirt was ruffled and her hair was strewn everywhere. Her eyes were red and puffy as tears cascaded down her cheeks. Benny shoved her over to her spot in the room and quickly chained her up before leaving hastily.

"Seaver! What the hell happened?" Hotch demanded.

Seaver was sitting on the floor with her legs brought up to her chest and she sobbed out, "I-I think I just… just got Reid killed."

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><p><strong>*Cues dramatic music* *Laughs evily* What happened to Seaver and Reid? Well, you'll just have to wait until the next chapter! <strong>

**I was thinking about writing another story about Reid and Rachel. What do you guys think? Maybe she somehow survived the accident and Reid didn't know or somthing. I had different ideas floating around in my head from Rachel being a drug addict to her getting married to her father being a serial killer and coming after Reid. I dunno, just an idea. If you guys want me to do a story about them, tell me! Or better yet, message me your ideas! I'll always be happy to listen to you guys!**

**Oh, well. REVIEEEEEW!**


	15. Lovely

**Author's Note!**

**Thank you all for the reviews! Seriously, every time I get a good review I feel like dancing lol. Sorry if I creeped you out xD THERE IS TORURE IN THIS CHAPTER! Muwhahaha. **

**I don't own Criminal Minds. All mistakes are my own. Slight language. Enjoy!**

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><p>"Where are you taking us?" Reid demanded.<p>

Benny had Reid's arm in a death grip and Starson was holding Seaver in a similar fashion. They had just forced them out of the circle room and was now moving them along the white hallway. Neither Starson nor Benny answered him. Reid felt a familiar fear build up in his chest. But what confused him was the strange feeling of anger inside of him.

It was one thing to torture _him._ But bring Seaver into this? Now they were really asking for an angry Reid. He glanced over at Seaver who was being dragged along a little ways in front of him.

Her back was stiff and she was walking with staggered steps like she was debating whether or not to take another one. The tight ponytail in her hair had slightly come loose and a few pieces of stray hair fell in her face. He couldn't see the expression on her face but he could guess she was scared.

"Listen," Reid began, "You can do what you want to me. Just let her go."

Starson laughed, "Are you really trying to talk me down, Dr. Reid?"

Seaver stiffened and Reid didn't answer him. Starson was still laughing by the time they reached the door. It looked slightly different than all the other ones, instead of being plain white, this door had a large, blue plus sign in the center of it.

Starson pulled the familiar key out of his pocket and unlocked the door before stuffing the key back down in his jean pocket. He pushed the door open and pulled Seaver inside. Benny followed him in, dragging Reid with him and then shutting the door once they were inside. . Reid felt his fear and anger turn to downright panic when he saw the room.

The room looked like a bedroom out of a romance movie. The floor was covered with red carpet and there were mahogany bookshelves lining the walls. In the center of the room was a large king sized bed. The parts of the walls that were showing between the book shelves had a strange silver material covering them.

"Sound proof walls?" Reid asked in confusion.

Starson laughed, "I thought it would be interesting to see how your team reacted without hearing any of the things we'll be doing to you."

"What _will _you be doing to us?" Seaver spoke up for the first time. Reid was surprised at how calm her voice sounded but her body language showed the clear fear. Starson only gave her another wicked grin in response.

"Hold on to him. Make sure he watches," Starson said to Benny. Reid was confused for a moment but then Benny moved his grip into a bear hug from behind Reid. He was holding onto him in a fashion that held him arms down and made in virtually impossible to move.

"Hey! He…wha-? Let me go!" Reid said and struggled against his grip. Of course, it was no use. Benny had a seriously strong grip of steel. Reid gave up struggling and moved his attention back to Starson and Seaver.

Seaver was staring at him with wide, frightened eyes while Starson just looked like his normal, amused self. Suddenly, Starson shoved Seaver down on the bed and she let out a yelp of surprise.

"HEY!" Reid shouted at him. Reid pulled against Benny when he realized what Starson was going to do. But Benny's grip only tightened.

Starson climbed up and straddled Seaver's waist. He moved his hands down he legs and planted a forced kiss on her lips. Her eyes widened as she tried to pull away. This only resulted in getting slapped by Starson.

"Stay still!" he commanded her.

When Reid saw Starson's hand connect with her face, he completely lost it. Reid raised his left foot and kicked backwards at Benny's shins. Benny yelled out in pain and his hands dropped from Reid's torso. Reid ran foreword to the bed and yanked Starson off of Seaver.

Reid had once remembered reading a story online about a woman who lifted a car off of her infant son and she claimed she had an adrenaline rush. He wondered vaguely if this is what she felt like. Reid didn't even feel it when the stitches in his chest tore at the hash movements of yanking Starson off the bed. Actually, he should be withering in pain right now. But yet he felt nothing. It was almost like he was high again.

Starson gasped in surprise when he landed on the floor. Reid wasted no time getting onto his chest and began repeatedly punching his face. Once Starson realized what was happening, he slammed his knee up into Reid's chest. Reid flew off of Starson and landed on the floor. He felt the high wear down and the pain in his chest slowly bubbled up.

And then Starson was kicking him. Repeatedly, over and over into his chest. Reid curled himself up in the fetal position and prayed for the kicking to stop. And they eventually did.

Reid slowly raised his head up to see Starson addressing Benny; who was now holding a crying Seaver.

"Take her back to the room. I need to teach this one a lesson," he heard Starson say and he felt strangely relieved. He saved her. He saved Seaver. He heard Seaver shout some curse words at Starson as Benny forcefully shoved her out of the room.

Once they were gone, Starson turned to Reid. His nose had a thin trail of blood coming out of it and his face was now showing off numerous bruises from Reid's fist. _Damn, _Reid thought to himself, _he looks angry. _

"You've been very bad today," Starson said as he began walking up to Reid's crumpled form on the floor.

"Yeah, well you haven't been very good either," Reid said sarcastically. This earned him another kick to the face and Reid groaned in pain.

Suddenly, Starson yanked him up into a standing position. Reid cried out in pain at the movement and he had to force himself not to pass out. And then they were walking out of the room.

"W-w-where are we g-going?" Reid managed out through the pain that was engulfing his body.

"We're going to teach you a lesson," Starson said simply before stopping at another door and shoving it open after unlocking it.

Reid froze when he saw what room he was in. It was the same room he had been stabbed in. Starson shoved him forward towards the table and Reid didn't have the strength to fight him anymore. Starson shoved him down onto the table and began tightening the straps.

"You know," Starson began talking as he fastened the strap around his wrists, "Your team will be able to hear every scream you make."

Reid groaned internally. _Great. Just great. _

Starson disappeared from view and walked over to the wall of horrors. Reid felt his heart rate speed up he felt himself begin to panic. _Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In... Crap! _Starson walked back over to the table with a taser in his hands.

Starson laughed at the expression of fear on Reid's face, "Well if that's how you were going to react, I would have done this a long time ago."

_Breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale._

"This is going to hurt."

_Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale._

"A lot."

_Inhale. Exhale. _

Starson pursed his lips at the little reaction from Reid but didn't say anything else. Instead, he pressed the taser up to Reid's chest and just held it there.

"No statistics for me, Dr. Reid?" Starson asked in a mocking voice.

No reply.

_Inhale. Exhale. Repeat. _

Starson sighed, "Oh, well."

Then he clicked it on and Reid was sent down a spiraling hole of pain. He tried to hold in his scream but it ripped through his throat despite his protests. His senses began failing him. His vision no longer worked and his sense of smell completely disappeared.

All he heard was the shrill sound of his screams and the high pitched sound of Starson's laughter. All he felt was the pain that ate him inside and out.

Then it stopped.

Reid still couldn't see or smell and his ears were ringing and his skin was tingling.

"Have you learned your lesson?" Starson's voice said from somewhere above him. Reid tried to answer but his mouth wouldn't listen to what his brain told it to do.

"Hm… I guess that's a no," Starson mused.

_No! _Reid's mind screamed, _I learned my lesson! Just no more!_

He could hear Starson moving around and Reid blinked his eyes furiously, trying to get his vision back only to see more darkness. He heard Starson walking back up to his and he immediately stiffened.

"I hope you're not afraid of fire," Starson said.

_Fire? _

And then he felt pain erupt from his left thigh and he screamed. _Fire! He was fucking burning him!_

Starson laughed and Reid felt as if he was being ripped apart. Slowly, painfully, piece by piece. Until there was nothing left of him. The shell of the boy of the man that he used to be. Reid felt the darkness creeping back into his conspicuousness and he welcomed it to him with open arms.

Then there was no more pain.

Only welcoming darkness.

Lovely.

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><p><strong>Okay so this story is slowly veering it's way off the track I wanted it to go in. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing yet. Hm... Oh, well.<strong>

**Review!**


	16. Bloody Fingers

**Author's Note!**

**To the person who pointed out my error: I meant to put 5'11" not 6'11", sorry about that. Anyways, thank you for the nice reviews! This chapter has a lot of Rossi in it and I'm not sure if I did well portraying him. I'm not too good with Rossi lol. Enjoy!**

**I don't own Criminal Minds nor the characters. All mistakes are my own. Slight language and possible spoilers. **

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><p>He groaned and slowly opened his eyes. His whole body ached and his memory was beginning to fail him again. Pain. Why was he in pain?<p>

_Okay, what is your name?_

Name. Name. His name… It began with an S. It was a common name… Sam? No. Spencer! Yes, his name was Spencer. Spencer Reid.

_Now, where am I? _

Reid cracked open his eyes and looked around the room he was in. The walls were white as were the floor and the ceiling. The twin sized bed he was on was made of a dark colored wood and had forest green blankets on it. Next to his bed was a table filled with all kinds of medical supplies. Gauze, band-aids, cotton balls, rubbing alcohol, peroxide… He was in some type of treatment room.

_How did you get here?_

Here… He was on a case with the rest of his team. Team? Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, Seaver, and… Garcia! Yes! Then what? They gave the profile… someone gave a tip…. Trap! It was a trap! Starson kidnapped them. Starson….? The UNSUB! The police officer was in on it, too.

Reid's memories came flowing back to him once the dam broke. He looked down at his body to assess the damage. His chest bandages were changed into new, clean ones. Part of his pant leg had been ripped (or burnt) off and was now being covered by large, gauze pads. The slice on his arm didn't have any type of bandage on it and it was now only an angry red line.

_How long had he been passed out?_

The room was windowless so he couldn't see the sunlight. He glanced over at the white door and sighed. It was probably locked, but it's worth a try. Right?

He took and few deep breaths and then swung his long legs over the edge of the bed. Pain shot up through his legs and torso and he yelped out but didn't stop moving up. He gritted his teeth and slowly stood up on unstable feet.

He wobbled his way over to the door and tested it. It opened easily. _Huh, _Reid though in surprise, _this is almost too easy._

He opened the door slightly and peeked out into the hallway. He looked both ways, seeing nothing, and then pushed the door open just enough to slide his thin body through. He stopped and looked at the hallway. It seemed endless either way and he wasn't sure which way to turn. He quickly did a game of eenie-meenie-minie-moe before walking to the right.

He walked somewhat quickly and glanced at each door as he passed by. He wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for, he just hoped nobody would catch him.

"What the _hell _do you think you're doing?" a very angry female voice said from behind him. Shit.

He turned around to see Nicole standing there with her hands on her hips over her black skinny jeans.

"Uhm…" Reid mustered out.

"You are _so _lucky I found you! If Mikey or someone found you, you would be a bloody mess right now!" Nicole said. Reid noticed a slight British accent laced underneath her words that had gotten more pronounced as she got angrier.

"Why do you care?" Reid asked her in a flat tone.

Nicole's expression looked hurt and she sighed, "C'mon. I need to get you back to the room with your team." She ignored his question and started walking in the direction Reid had just come from. Reid stood there, staring after her.

Nicole turned around, causing her grey t-shirt to sway, "You coming?"

Reid stared at her then nodded.

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><p>David Rossi was never really wore his heart on his sleeve but after hearing the pain filled screams of Reid, he felt his mask of deception slowly slipping away. Sure, when he first joined this team, he didn't like the kid very much. He just seemed like an annoying kid who knew too much for his own good. But over the years, the kid grew on him.<p>

After Seaver explained what had happened with Starson, he couldn't help but feel a bit a pride swell inside of him. Reid, the awkward skinny genius who wouldn't hurt a fly, had gotten a few good punches in there. Morgan and Hotch looked like they felt similarly to him while Emily's face remained expressionless.

The screams had ended hours ago, but they still haunted everyone. Not that they wanted to admit it, but there was a good chance Reid could be dead right now. Rossi knew he should try to prepare them for the possibly news but he didn't want to crush their barely dwindling spirits.

"You know," he began carefully, "he may not-"

"Don't," Agent Morgan cut him off, "Not yet, Rossi. He's still alive. I know it."

Rossi gave him a doubtful look but respected his requests. Then, as if on cue, the door to the room swung open and in stepped Reid and the girl who called herself Nicole. Everyone's attention immediately snapped to Reid to check out his condition.

His chest bandages had been changed and he now had a bandage wrapped around his thigh. His complexion was paler than usual which made the dark circles under his eyes stand out more. His face was covered in bruises as were his arms. His eyes looked worn out and his body language basically mirrored the feeling.

"Careful," Nicole said as she led him over to his spot between Morgan and the door. Reid mumbled something incoherent and shuffled over to his empty chain. Nicole swiftly clasped the cuff around his ankle and gazed at Reid one more time as if to see if he was okay, then left the room.

"What did that bastard do to you, man?" Morgan asked him while eyeing his newly bandaged leg.

Reid cleared his throat uncomfortably, "He, ah, used a taser. Multiple times. And then he, um, had some type of lighter and burnt my leg. It's actually not as bad as the first time."

There was a beat of silence before Rossi pointed out, "You never _did _tell us what happened the first time."

Reid glanced up at him before looking back down at his hands, "Didn't think I needed to. You guys saw the marks when Nicole was changing the bandages."

"So you were stabbed," Prentiss sated bluntly.

Reid flinched at her words but then nodded, "And… and branded."

Before any of the team could reply, Rossi decided to take pity on the boy and change the subject.

"So," Rossi began and everyone looked at him, "Tell me more about Rachel. I only want to hear happy memories!"

Reid smiled at Rossi for a moment and then his eyes got the same faraway look they got when he was deep in thought.

"There was this one time when we were sixteen," Reid began, "Rachel wanted to go gambling. But we were underage, you see. So that caused quite a problem for us. But Rach didn't care… and she somehow managed to talk me into sneaking into a casino with her. God, was I nervous. But somehow we got in just fine. We-_ I_- managed to win over $47,000 before the security realized how old we were." Reid let out a small laugh which caused the rest of the team to smile.

"We got the money and just ran. Rachel though it would be fun to run across the tables. She somehow managed to get us both out but the security guys had gotten facial resignation and since then I have been banned from that casino ever since." Reid said with the smile still on his face.

The team laughed. This girl had certainly gotten to know a different side of Reid than they had known. As if the devil had put a curse on the, the door opened yet again to kill their happy mood. Benny and Gordon stepped inside and made a bee line towards Rossi.

"It's your turn," Benny said in a high, nasally voice.

"Well it's 'bout time," Rossi said calmly.

Benny bent down and unlocked his ankle cuff while Gordon took a firm grip on his arms.

"Let's go, tough guy," Benny said as they led him out of the room. Rossi could hear the protests of his team mates become cut off when the door slammed shut.

"So," Rossi began conversationally as they walked down teh white hallway, "Where's Starson?"

They ignored Rossi's question and kept walking in silence. A moment later, they reached yet another white door and Gordon unlocked it with his keys and then pushed it open. The room was average size with blood red walls. There was a table in the center with a chair bolted down to the ground in front of it. Two straps were on the table in front of the chair and Rossi guessed they were for his wrists.

Gordon shoved him forward and he stumbled into the chair. Gordon snatched Rossi's wrist and bound them to the table. Rossi pulled against the straps uselessly.

"Starson will be here shortly," Benny told him and then him and Gordon left the room and shut the door behind them.

Rossi sat in silence for a few moments before the door to the room opened yet again and Starson stepped out.

Starson smiled wickedly, "Sorry for the wait, David."

"No problem," he replied calmly

Starson walked over to the other side of the table and smiled down at Rossi which made Rossi's skin crawl.

"Now let's have some fun, shall we?" Starson said as he pulled a blade out of his pocket. Rossi's eyes widened as he stared at the knife, glimmering dangerously in the light.

"I'm not sure if your definition of fun is similar to mine," Rossi said in the same calm voice as before except slightly more tensed.

Starson grinned and positioned his knife over the pinky finger on Rossi's left hand, "Well I guess we'll just have some fun _my _way."

And then Starson brought the blade down onto Rossi's finger. Rossi yelled in pain between clenched teeth as he felt his finger disconnect from his hand. Starson laughed and moved the knife on to his ringer finger. Rossi's eyes widened as he watched the blade go down yet again on to his ring finger. He screamed in utter pain and horror as he watched helplessly as the madman cut his fingers off.

"I think this is just wonderful! Don't you, Agent Rossi?" Starson laughed and moved his blade over the next finger.

Rossi felt a wave of nausea when he looked down at his left and didn't see his two fingers.

Starson laughed even more at Rossi's reaction, "Let's see how long we can go before you pass out, eh?" With that he brought down the blade again.

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><p><strong>Hm... Am I evil for cutting of Rossi's fingers? Psssh nah ;D Sorry if the end of this chapter feels kinda rushed, I needed to finish quickly 'cause I have serious homework to do and I DEFINATILY wanted to post today. So I'm still thinking about making a ReidRachel story. Would you guys read it? I'm feeling a little doubtful about making it xD Oh, well. **

**Please review!**


	17. Choose

**Author's Note!**

**Okay, I am _so _sorry for taking forever to post! But I have a good excuse! This complete pig was sexually harrassing my friend at school and I went up and backhanded him. Or more correctly put "I totally bitch slapped his ass!". Lol but then my dad grounded me so no tv, no phone, and ,sadly, no internet. But my dad had to go to the store and he left me home alone so I was all like "Hellz yeeeaaah". You can kinda guess the first thing I did. This was all I can fit in at the moment but I'll find a way to post more soon. **

**And I know the whole finger thing with Rossi wasn't very original but I couldn't really think of anything complex to do to him since I'm not so good with Rossi's character. Sorry. I'm rambling again. I'll let you get to your reading. Enjoy!**

**I don't own Criminal Minds or the characters. All mistakes are my own. Slight spoilers. Language. **

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><p>Reid twiddled his thumbs, trying to forget the sound of Rossi's screams. But he knew he never would forget them; they were branded deep within his mind, playing over and over and over again. He wondered if this is what the rest of the team felt like when he was gone.<p>

"We need to get out of here," Seaver said to break the silence.

"Oh? You just found that out?" Prentiss snapped back at her.

Seaver flinched at the sound of her cold voice, "I-I was just, er…"

Morgan cut her off from her awkward apology, "How do you suppose we would escape?"

"When Starson brings Rossi back, we could try to fight him," Hotch suggested.

"Uh, Hotch?" Reid said, "In case you haven't noticed, we're chained to walls."

Hotch sighed and ran his hand over his face, "Yeah, yeah I know. What to you suggest?"

Reid hesitated for a moment before answering, "I'm assuming after Starson brings Rossi back, he's going to take someone else. Whoever he tried to take, could try to subdue him long enough to grab the key. Then, I dunno, they could throw it to someone else and they could unlock their chains."

"What if Benny or Gordon is with him?" Seaver asked.

Reid shrugged, "Then we're screwed."

Hotch nodded along with Reid's plan, "He's most likely going to take Morgan since he hasn't already. Maybe-"

Hotch was cut off by a low buzzing sound followed by a yelp. Everyone's eyes snapped to Reid who was leaning heavily on the wall, wide eyed.

"What the hell just happened?" Morgan half shouted.

Reid opened his mouth to say something then closed it when he couldn't make words come out. He paused for a moment then tried to speak again.

"It was the shock chain again," he said in a scared voice.

_Great, just great! _Reid seethed in his mind, _I definitely have some type of damage now! _Reid felt everyone look at him sympathetic which only made him more annoyed. Suddenly, another sharp stab of pain traveled up his leg.

He yelled and felt himself fall to the ground. He heard the sound of is team members call his name but they all sounded far away. The stone ground was cold under his back and he felt his body jerk violently in all directions. Foam spilled out the sides of his mouth and his mind began to blur.

The shout of his team members became more distant and he slowly began to lose feeling in his body. Then it all went black. No more pain. No more shouting. No feeling. Total nothingness.

Slowly, as if he were floating in a pit of tar, the light assaulted his line of vision. Robotic sounding voices entered his conscious and he felt his finger tingling. Experimentally, he twitched his thumb. They moved.

The voices became louder at the simple movement. Reid's hearing slowly became stronger and he could make out some of the words being said.

"-right now, I'm going to kick your ass," Morgan voice said, sounding panicked.

Reid twitched his arms and groaned aloud at the stiffness of his muscles.

He heard a sigh of relief followed by a, "I thought you were dead!"

_Wow, thanks, _he thought flatly.

He pushed himself up onto his elbows and blinked his eyes, trying to clear his sight. All the members of his team were staring at him with wide, concerned eyes. He wiped the spit from his mouth with the back of his hand.

Before anyone could ask him questions, Starson barged into the room.

"I would suggest you not try to escape from me," Starson said.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!," Morgan yelled at him, "You could have killed him!"

Starson made a 'tsk' sound at Morgan, "Why, Agent Morgan, I plan on killing Dr. Reid a certain way and this was not it."

Reid felt a spike of panic flood through him. _Plan on killing him a certain way?_ Nobody said anything and Starson smirked and then turned to Reid. Starson reached into his pocket and pulled out a pistol.

"Choose one team member to die." Starson said.

_Suddenly, Reid was back in the shack; tied down to the chair. The smell of burning fish flesh and dirt burned his nose. The cool feeling of blood covered his head while he stared up at his captor. Tabias stood above him, pointing the revolver at his head. _

_"Choose," he commanded._

"Choose one to die," Starson repeated.

Reid stared at him in disbelief, "_What? _No!"

Starson launched forward and his fist connected with Reid cheek. Reid yelped and his head bounced painfully against the wall behind him.

"HEY!" Morgan yelled. Starson ignored him and pointed the gun at Reid's head.

"Choose," he commanded once more.

Reid shook his head in defiance, "No."

Starson frowned again and then swung the gun against Reid's skull. Reid cried out in pain and grabbed his throbbing head.

"Choose."

"No."

_Whack._

"Choose."

"No."

_Whack._

"Choose."

Reid hesitated and then answered, "Kill me."

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><p><strong>Again, sorry about the short length. <strong>

**Review! **


	18. Kill Me

**Author's Note!**

**Okay, so I'm still grounded so updates might come a little slower than usual. Sorry. But I think my dad is slowly caving in to my pleads to be un-grounded so I may or may not begin to post faster. Oh, well. Anyways, THERE IS A CHARACTER DEATH IN THIS CHAPTER! Yes, it's finally happening. You have been warned. *laughs evily* Enjoy!**

**I don't own Criminal Minds nor the characters. All mistakes are my own. Language and spoilers. Character death. ;D**

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><p>"Kill me," Reid repeated. Starson stared at Reid with an unreadable expression on his face before shaking his head.<p>

"_Besides _yourself," Starson clarified.

"Well, then I'm not choosing," Reid said and raised his eyebrows in defiance.

Starson frowned and then punched Reid in his jaw with his fist.

"You. Will. Choose. One. To. Die," Starson said while emphasizing each word with another punch. Starson stopped punching at the end of his sentence and was breathing hard. Reid leaned heavily against the wall and had brought his hands up to protect his face with no avail.

Slowly, Reid lowered his hands and glared at Starson, "No." Reid's voice was hard like steel and so very un-Reid like. The rest of the team who had watched in horror at the whole interaction were now feeling a small swell of pride at Reid's strength. He was no longer the weak little kid, he was now Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid.

Starson looked at him thoughtfully before reaching into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, black bag.

"I think this may help you with your decision," Starson said as he opened the black bag. Reid eyed the bag warily and racked his mind for all the different things Starson could have in there. His curiosity turned to fear and then panic when he saw what Starson pulled out.

In his hand, Starson was holding a small vial of clear liquid. _No, no, no, no, no. _

Starson grinned at Reid's reaction, "So… are you going to choose or am I going to have to use this?" Starson held up the bottle of Dilaudid to emphasize his point. Reid opened his mouth to talk but he couldn't create the words. He already knew what he was going to do, it was a no-brainer, but he couldn't make himself say the words.

"I… I'm not going to choose," Reid's voice was significantly weaker than before and that only made Starson more excited.

"Mmm…" Starson mumbled as he pulled a syringe out of his pocket. Reid's panic increase when he saw the syringe, it made it all too real.

"You stay the hell away from him!" Morgan yelled at Starson but Starson ignored him as he prepared the injection.

"Y-you don't have to do this," Reid mustered out pathetically. Starson merely glanced up at him and smiled. Starson's hand snatched out and grabbed Reid's wrist. Reid yelped in surprise and jumped backwards but Starson held him in place.

"If you resist, I'll kill him," Starson said and pointed his gun in Morgan's direction. Reid looked over and met Morgan's pained expression. Reid looked back at Starson and nodded sadly. Starson grinned and rolled Reid's sleeve up.

Starson pulled out a rubber tourniquet and fastened it to Reid's forearm. Previous track marks littered his arm and Reid looked away from them, ashamed. Starson positioned the needle in the crook of Reid's and paused, waiting for Reid to say something.

When Reid didn't say anything, Starson pushed the needle down and released the liquid into Reid's blood stream. Reid gasped in surprise when the cool substance plowed its way through his veins straight to his brain.

The drug caused Reid's senses to blur. The frantic words of his team members hazed together and Reid's didn't even notice when Starson left the room. His brain slowed to a crawl compared to its usually fast pace.

He leaned back into the wall behind him a sighed. Like it or not, he was enjoying himself at the moment.

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><p>Morgan gave a frustrated hiss and rubbed his hand over his face. His eyes wandered over to where Reid was leaning up against the wall. The kid had been standing there for at least twenty minutes. Just staring off into space, retreating into himself like he does when he's thinking. But Morgan highly doubted that Reid was thinking. It probably wasn't even physically possible for Reid to think in the position he was in.<p>

"He's going to be okay," Hotch said when he noticed Morgan staring. Morgan looked up and met Hotch's eyes. They were tired with a hint of sadness. Morgan sighed and decided to veer the conversation away from Reid.

"What do you think they're doing with Rossi?" Morgan asked, changing the subject.

Hotch shrugged, "No idea."

The room was silent save for the sounds of the team members breathing. Then an all too familar buzzing sound filled the room followed by a loud gasp. Everyone's eyes flew to Reid, who was breathing hard and wide eyed at the electic shock. Then he exploded.

"What the _hell_?" Reid shouted, "I wasn't even fucking doing ANYTHING!"

The team stared at him in shock. Reid glared at the team through half-closed, drug hazed eyes.

"What are _you _staring _at_?" Reid demanded them. The team remained shocked into silence. Reid let out a frustrated breath through his nose and buried his head in his hands.

"Reid?" Prentiss asked tentatively and ignored the look Hotch shot her, "It's all going to be okay. They're going to find us."

Reid sighed and then mumbled, "Yeah, but are they going to find us dead or alive?"

Prentiss didn't have a reply to that. Partly because he had a good point. Were they going to live long enough to be found? Were they even going to be found at all? Nobody had a legit answer to Reid's question which only downed their spirits more.

The silence was broken by the door opening up and Starson and Nicole walked in. Starson's eyes were burning with anger and Nicole cowered behind him with a fearful expression on her face.

"Your little tech bitch found me!" Starson seethed. The team immediately was shocked at the mention of Garcia. They were filled with relief when they heard they were found but it was immediately turned to fear when they realized Starson was about to do something drastic.

The team watched in shock as he pulled out a gun and clicked the safety off.

"It's time for it all to end," Starson said in a dangerously low voice.

"No!" Nicole suddenly spoke up. The high pitched sound of her voice sent a shock wave of pain through Reid's skull and he winced in pain.

_What is it with girls and talking so damn loud?_

Starson looked over at her in shock, "What?"

Nicole swallowed hard and held her chin up high, "I said, no."

Starson stared at her for a moment before punching her in her jaw. Nicole cried out and stumbled backwards, clutching her injured mouth.

"Hey!" Reid uncharacteristically yelled out. He ignored the warning look his team members gave him. The Dilaudid had woken up the monster inside Reid and it was ready to play.

"If you're going to hit someone, hit someone worth fighting! Only a pussy would hit a girl!" Reid yelled at Starson. His team hissed his name, begging for him to shut up.

_Blame the monster, _Reid thought bitterly.

Starson stared at him in shock before his mouth twitched slightly at the ends, "I never knew you knew such language, Dr. Reid. Now, I just want to make it clear that this is all you fault."

Reid stared at him in confusion, "What's all my fault?"

To answer his question, Starson raised his gun at Seaver's head. Reid's eye widened and fear spiked within him.

"No!" Reid screamed but his protest was deafened by the sound of a gun going off. Reid could only stare in shock. Seaver was now lying in an unnatural position on the floor, her blonde hair twisted haphazardly around her face. Crimson was splattered around on the wall and the floor while Seaver's dead, unseeing eyes stared wide. They seemed to be staring directly at Reid, blaming him for her death.

"NO!" he heard Prentiss scream and the string of curse words Morgan had yelled. But Starson was staring directly at Reid, a grin plastered on his face. Slowly, Starson raised the gun to point directly at Reid's head.

"Good-bye, Spencer," Starson said.

And the sound of another gunshot echoed through the room.

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><p><strong>The end is near!<strong>

**I think I'm addicted to cliffhangers... Heh heh heh :) I've decided I'm not gonna do a Reid/Rachel story. I started making an outline for it yesterday and then I realized how bad I suck at romance stories xD Yeah, it's pretty sad...**

**I'm thinking of making a supernatural CM story (staring Reid, of course) What do you like better? Zombies, vampires, or some crazy mutants? OR I was thinking about making a FF about Reid's dad coming back into Reid's life or something like that... I dunno, it's all just ideas. **

**REEEEEEEVIEW!**


	19. I Am The Monster

**Author's Note!**

**I decided to be a super ninja and sneek in two chapters today to make up for lost days. So here you go! And, if I do say so myself, REID IS A TOTAL BADASS IN THIS CHAPTER! *clears throat* Uh, yeah... Enjoy!**

**I don't own Criminal Minds nor the characters. All mistakes are my own. I don't think there are spoilers but watch out just in case. Warning for strong language and totaly ninja, ass-kicking Spencer Reid ;D**

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><p>The sound of the gun shot bounced off the circular walls and echoed in Reid's ears. He watched in horror as Nicole's small body crumple to the ground. It all happened so fast. Starson had raised the gun but at the last second, Nicole jumped in front of Reid. Taking the bullet.<p>

Blood seeped through the thin fabric of Nicole's shirt and she crumpled to the ground with a dying whimper. Starson stared in shock at his little sister falling to the ground. His gun clattered to the ground and his mouth hung open slightly.

"I…You," Starson stuttered, his brain not connecting the chain of events that led up to this. Suddenly, Starson's eyes snapped up to Reid, blazing with anger.

"YOU!" he screamed at Reid, "YOU KILLED HER!"

Reid stared at him in shock before he let the monster inside of him take full control.

"I killed her? You're the one who pulled the fucking trigger!" Reid yelled back. If looks could kill, Reid would be dead on the ground. Starson glared at Reid with such intense hate the Reid felt a twinge of fear inside of him. But he quickly pushed it down and urged the monster forward. He knew he would pay later for letting the monster out so easily but he knew that the normal Reid couldn't handle this situation and the monster was the best option on getting him out of here alive.

Starson lunged forward at Reid, his gun forgotten on the floor. Reid side-stepped at the last second and Starson rammed into the wall behind him. Reid's hands snatched out and grabbed the hair on the back of Starson's head.

He yanked backwards, earning a strangled yell from Starson, and slammed his head back into the wall. Dazed, Starson twisted around out of Reid grasp and kicked his foot out. His foot connected with Reid's lower stomach and he gasped out in pain as he felt the foot hit his stitches. Starson lunged forward again and tackled Reid down onto the cold floor.

The chain around Reid's ankle caused his leg to twist painfully as he landed. Reid yelped as his head connected with floor and Starson climbed up and straddled Reid's hips. Reid wiggled under Starson as he tried to free himself and felt a slight tug as he ripped some of his previous stitches, but Starson was quite a bit larger than Reid. He wasn't sure if it was the adrenaline, drugs, or a mixture of the two but he didn't feel any pain. In fact, he felt the monster push back more powerful than ever.

Starson raised his fist up to punch Reid but Reid swiftly brought his own fists up and punched Starson squarely in the nose with a satisfied _crack_. Starson gasped in surprise and tumbled backwards off of Reid's hips. Reid scrambled up onto Starson's waist before he could react.

"That was for Shannon Felder," Reid hissed in Starson's face. Reid raised his own fist and then smashed it down onto Starson's face.

"And that was for Jason Hoffman," he hissed again, the monster taking full control of his body. He was no longer Spencer Reid, he was a traumatized, drug fueled, on-the-verge-of-insanity kid who is about to beat the shit out of this guy.

Reid brought his fist down again.

"Faith Dooley."

Again.

"Ashley Seaver."

Again.

"Aaron Hotchner."

And again.

"David Rossi."

Reid beat his fist down again and Starson drooled blood out of the corner of his mouth.

"Derek Morgan."

Again.

"Emily Prentiss."

Again.

"Nicole."

Reid brought his fist back yet again and brought it crushing down on Starson's cheek. His head whipped to the side and Starson's eyes lulled half-way closed.

"Spencer Reid."

Reid stopped punching and brought his bloodied knuckles up to the collar of Starson's shirt. Reid pulled the loose fabric in his fists and raised Starson up slightly off the ground and brought his face closer to Reid's.

"Look at me," Reid growled. Starson's eyes slowly focused in on Reid and he grinned. Starson's teeth were stained red with blood as a few droplets ran down his chin.

"Why are you smiling?" Reid demanded.

Starson smiled wider and pulled Reid in even closer to him. Starson opened his mouth to speak but had to try multiple times before he could get the words out.

"You're no better than me." He finally managed out before going limp in Reid's arms. He killed him. He just beat a man to death. He really was no better than him.

"Reid," Morgan's urgent voice brought Reid out of his blood crazed frenzy. Reid looked up at Morgan, who was pointing over to the door to the room. Reid could hear heavy footsteps coming closer to the door. Fast.

Reid snapped into action quickly. He stuffed his hands into Starson's jean pocket and closed his fingers over the cool metal. He pulled out the key and swiftly unlocked his ankle cuff. He tossed the key over to Morgan, who caught it in mid-air, and ran over to where Starson dropped the gun.

The door to the room flew open and Reid dove for the gun. His finger's closed around the trigger and he rolled over just in time to see Benny pull out a gun of his own and point it directly at Reid. Reid's finger tightened around the trigger and the room was filled with a loud gunshot. Benny fell to the ground and Gordon appeared from behind and raised his gun.

Before Reid could react, Gordon pulled the trigger of his gun. The gun shot echoed through the room and Reid felt a strong force push him backwards. He yelped in surprise but didn't feel any pain. He looked up to just in time to see Morgan tackle Gordon to the ground. Apparently, he had gotten his cuff off.

Morgan knocked the gun out of Gordon's grasp and rammed his fist into Gordon's jaw. Gordon fell to the ground, unconscious. As soon as he fell to the ground, Morgan turned to Reid and his eyes widned.

"Oh, God, Reid," Morgan said and rushed to Reid's side down on the ground.

"W'at?" Reid's words were slurred. _What the hell?_

Morgan's eyes were glued to Reid's chest and Reid looked down in surprise.

Blood.

There was blood everywhere; it covered his whole torso, leaving him in a crimson blanket.

"Mo'gan? W't 'app'n?" Reid slurred.

Suddenly, Hotch appeared at Reid's other side. So, he had somehow gotten a hold of the key, too.

"Keep pressure on this," Hotch instructed Morgan, "I'll see if I can find a phone."

Morgan nodded in confirmation and then Hotch disappeared. Morgan pressed his hands down on where Reid's right bicep would be. Reid yelped out when pain surged through his body. Apparently his high was wearing off.

Hotch appeared back into his line of sight holding a small, black cell phone.

"Gordon had it on him," Hotch explained before opening the phone and dialing. Hotch put the phone on speaker and the sound of rings filled the otherwise quiet room. The ringing stopped when the person on the other side of the line answered.

"Penelope Garcia…?"

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><p><strong>Ah, escape. Beautiful thing, isn't it? Lol sorry for being creepy xD So, yeah, exciting parts are coming to a close and savingangst/hurt/comfurt stuff are coming up. Hope you enjoyed!**

**Please review! :D**


	20. Phone Call

**Author's Note!**

**Sorry 'bout not posting yesterday, I'm still grounded -_- But atleast I'm able to sneek in the few posts I can. Sorry if this chapter is a little choppy, I needed to show what everyone was doing. Enjoy!**

**I don't own Criminal Minds. All mistakes are my own. Mentions of rape. **

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><p>The usual joyful sound of Garcia's voice was gone and was replaced by sadness.<p>

"Garcia?" Hotch said into the phone.

A long bang was heard on the other side of the phone and was followed by a "HOTCH?"

"Yes, yes, Garcia. I need you to track this phone _now_," Hotch stressed his urgency, "We need an ambulance."

"Oh, god…" Garcia said into the phone and the team could hear the sound of her clicking on her computer, "Just… Stay on the line; it'll take just a few minutes. What's going on? Is everyone okay? Are my babies okay?"

Hotch's eyes strayed over to where Seaver's lifeless body lay and then he looked at Reid's bloodied form. No, they were not okay.

"Hotch?" Garcia's voice was barely a whimper and they could hear her crying.

Reid could barely hear what she was saying. His senses began shutting down on him again and a wave of tiredness washed over him.

"Reid? Reid!" someone was calling his name. Someone… far away… Morgan?

Reid blinked his eyes open and lazily focused on Morgan face hovering above him. He saw Hotch and Prentiss out of the corner of his eye staring at him with horrified expressions. They both ran over and knelt down next to him. Morgan was holding onto Reid's right hand while Prentiss clutched the other.

He could hear the voice of Garcia somewhere in the background. _Garcia? Was she kidnapped too?_

"Reid, man, I need you to keep your eyes open," Morgan pleaded with him with tears in his eyes. Morgan? Crying? What has this world coming to?

Reid opened his mouth to talk but all that came out was a gurgling sound and Reid began coughing violently.

"HOTCH? WHAT IS HAPPENING?" Reid could hear Garcia's frantic voice echoing off the walls.

Reid felt a strange sensation inside of him and then he couldn't breathe. Pain ripped through his chest as he gasped for air. He was overtaken by another coughing fit and felt blood trickle out of his mouth, eerily reminding him of his encounter with Anthrax.

"Reid! Look at me! REID!" Morgan's voice was on the edge of hysteria. Reid forced his eyes back open. When did he even close them? He didn't remember. Pain. Pain. Pain.

He tried to gasp another lung full of air, but it wouldn't go down. He started to panic. _Why couldn't he breathe? Inhale. Exhale._ Nothing. It wasn't working.

"Reid, calm down," Morgan said in a forced calm voice. Reid wanted to scream at him, tell him how ridiculous he was being.

_Calm down? Hello! I'm suffocating over here!_

Reid felt his eyes flutter closed once more.

"REID!"

Reid tried to open his eyes but they wouldn't listen to his brain. Slowly, he felt himself fade away. Unconscious.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Bliss…

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><p>Penelope Garcia was always a very optimistic person. You had to be when you worked this job. When she was told that the raid went wrong and her team was nowhere to be found, she went into total meltdown. Yelling at the officers, throwing things… Total. Mental. Breakdown.<p>

But she kept he hope. Days went by, and slowly they reached day four and her hopes were dwindling. She was sitting in her office when her phone rang.

"Penelope Garcia…?" she answered tiredly.

"Garcia?" the oh-so familiar voice asked. Garcia jumped in surprise and knocked over the coffee cup next to her.

"HOTCH?" she practically screamed into the phone.

"Yes, yes, Garcia," his voice sounded strained and slightly scared, an emotion that startled Garcia, "I need you to track this phone _now. _We need an ambulance."

"Oh, god…," he shuddered at the thought at one of her babies being hurt. _Focus!_ She frantically clicked away at her keyboard.

"Just… Stay on the line; it'll take just a few minutes. What's going on? Is everyone okay? Are my babies okay?" Garcia asked, her voice slightly hysterical. He didn't answer her and that struck fear into her heart. Someone was hurt. Someone was hurt bad.

"Hotch?" her voice was barely a whimper and she felt tears start streaming down her face.

She heard someone sigh, a female this time.

"Garcia…" It was Prentiss.

"Who? Which one of my babies is hurt? Or are they…" _Dead. No! Don't think like that! _

Before either Hotch or Prentiss could answer, she heard someone yell.

"Reid? REID!" It was Morgan this time. _No, no, no, no, no! _Not her baby! Not her junior G-man. It was all too much. She took a shuddering breath. Garcia could hear footsteps, like someone was running and then landing on the floor.

"Reid, man, I need you to keep your eyes open," Morgan's voice said again. He sounded like he was crying.

"HOTCH? WHAT IS HAPPENING?" Garcia yelled into the phone. Nobody answered her and that scared her the most. She could hear heavy breathing from multiple people and then someone coughing. A lot. It almost sounded like they were choking on their own blood.

"Hotch?" she whimpered again, "Prentiss? Morgan... Reid?"

"Reid! Look at me! REID!" Morgan yelled again and Garcia clutched her chest and gasped. This isn't happening, this isn't happening…

Her computer dinged signaling that it had found their location. Garcia quickly sent the location to the officer's in Tampa and prayed that they got there in time.

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><p>Hotch paced the waiting room of the hospital. They had arrived here about two hours ago and he still hasn't heard anything on his team members. Shortly after they had called Garcia, police had arrived at their location. They had quickly taken Reid away in a helicopter and the rest of the police force searched the rest of the building.<p>

They had found Rossi in one of the other rooms, completely finger-less, in a drug-induced sleep. They had whisked him away in a similar fashion that they did to Reid. They drove Hotch, Morgan, and Prentiss in regular, Government Issue SUV since their injuries weren't as severe.

As soon as they got to the hospital, the nurses insisted that they be checked over, ignoring the protests of the agents. Hotch and Morgan only suffered from slight dehydration but Prentiss had apparently been raped, much to their surprise. They were testing her now for any kind of diseases she could have gotten but for now it was only Morgan and Hotch in the waiting room.

Morgan was sitting in one of the uncomfortable, plastic chairs; his leg bouncing mindlessly. He was clearly consumed with worry and maybe even guilt for not being able to protect his friends better. Hotch knew that was how _he_ was feeling.

A few moment later, a middle-aged doctor with short, black hair entered the room.

"Emily Prentiss?" he called out. Morgan and Hotch immediately headed over to the man.

"We're her family," Hotch said. The doctor eyed Morgan's black skin warily before shrugging.

"Well, Miss Prentiss _was _raped," he began. Hotch and Morgan both winced and the doctor continued, "But it wasn't as bad as it could have been. We didn't find any apparent diseases and she could leave today if she liked to."

"Can we see her?" Hotch asked. The doctor nodded and then led them down the hall to the room Prentiss was staying in.

They pushed the door open and saw Emily sitting on her bed, wearing the same dark jeans and red shirt she was while they were kidnapped. She looked up when they entered and smiled slightly, "Hey."

Morgan smiled warmly back at her, "Hey yourself."

Prentiss smiled before her expression turned serious again, "Have you heard from Rossi or Reid yet?"

Hotch shook his head, "As far as we know, they're still in surgery."

Emily nodded before looking down. They stood there in silence for a few moments before Prentiss broke the silence.

"So, the doctor told you…" Emily stated while still looking down in her hands.

Morgan sighed and moved over to her side. He grabbed one of her hands in two of his. She flinched away from his touch but Morgan kept hold of her hands.

"Listen to me," he said to her and she glanced up at him, "_This _does not make you weak. You are strong. Stronger than he ever was. He was a monster and took advantage of you when you were in a weaker position. It was not your fault."

Prentiss bit her lip thoughtfully for a moment before replying, "Thank you."

Morgan smiled at her and replied, "Your welcome."

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><p><strong>Ta-da! Yeah, not my best writing but I'll probably update again later today. <strong>

**Please review!**


	21. His Own Hell

**Author's Note!**

**I told you I would be back! Muwhahaha :D Anyways, thank you so much for the reviews! They really mean a lot to me. This chapter is a little strange but it came out pretty good in my opinion. Enjoy!  
><strong>

**I own nothing. All mistakes are my own. All that other good stuff :)**

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><p>Prentiss had refused to go back to the hotel, despite Hotch's and Morgan's attempts to get her to do so. Right now, they were all sitting around, nursing their coffees. None of them spoke to one another; they just sat in a comfortable silence and waited for the news on their friends.<p>

"Hotch!" a familiar voice called. They all looked up to see JJ running towards them from the elevator with Garcia at her tail.

"What are you guys doing here?" Morgan asked as he stood up to greet them.

Garcia crossed her arms over her chest, "Well, you didn't expect us to sit around while our babies were in the hospital now did you?"

"Yeah, what's going on with everybody?" JJ cut in.

"Rossi and Reid are still in surgery," Hotch told them and ran a tired hand over his face.

"What about Seaver?" Garcia asked. Prentiss, Hotch, and Morgan glanced at each other awkwardly. That move didn't go unnoticed to Garcia and JJ.

"She… she's not…" Garcia floundered and swallowed hard. Morgan stepped forward and wrapped his dark arms around her shaking figure.

"I'm so sorry, Baby Girl," he murmured into her hair. Garcia sobbed into his shoulder and her pink nails dug into his back.

"W-… How?" JJ choked out.

"Starson shot her right in the head. She wasn't in any pain," Hotch told her, his eyes downcast.

JJ nodded and swallowed back tears. None of them had knew Seaver very well but it was still a jab to the heart the learn that the vibrant, young soul was no more.

"Ehm, David Rossi?" a voice called out into the room. The team turned in surprise to see a young, blonde woman with dark, brown hair. The whole team immediately unfroze and made their way up to the young nurse.

"You family?" she asked and eyed over the team, especially Morgan.

"Yes," JJ cut in before the nurse could barely finish her question, "how is he?"

The brunette sighed and the team tensed, sensing bad news.

"Well, we weren't able to reconnect his fingers," the nurse said and the women on the team let out an involuntary gasp. Morgan and Hotch just looked pissed at the world.

"Other than that, he's fine," the nurse continued, "he's slightly dehydrated and is going to have to go through extensive physical therapy. But I believe with the support of his friends, he'll be fine."

The nurse gave them a reassuring smile before turning to walk away.

"Wait!" Morgan called out to her and she turned, "What about Reid? I mean, er, Spencer Reid?"

The nurse frowned a moment and then flipped through a few pages on her clipboard.

"Spencer Reid…" she murmured to herself, "Ah-ha! He just came out of surgery a few moments ago. His doctor should be with you shortly."

Morgan sighed, with obvious relief of hearing Reid got through surgery, "Thanks." The nurse nodded politely before turning on her heel and walking off. The team stood there in silence, basking in the relief knowing that their youngest had made it through surgery. None of them wanted to think about the possible damages done to Reid, they only focused on the fact that he was alive.

The team looked up when they heard the door to the waiting room opened and an older, well-built man walked through the door.

"Spencer Re-" he didn't even have time to finish before the team rushed up to him.

"Us," Garcia said, he face still covered with wet tears, "We're his family."

The doctor smiled warmly at them, not even glancing at the fact there was no way they were all related by blood.

"My name is Dr. Kyle," the man began, "I was in charge of all Dr. Reid's surgeries. Dr. Reid had three broken ribs, ten stab wounds, a brand wound, a gunshot wound, a broken nose, a sprained ankle, and 3rd degree burns on his left thigh. Electrocution burns covered his ankle and chest. We're monitoring for signs of nerve or brain damage but it's not looking too severe. He may not be able to remember a few things and his speech may be a little off, but that should wear off with time. The stab and brand wounds seemed to be cleaned and medicated properly before he arrived to us so those aren't much of a big problem. The stab wounds all missed any major organs which, in my opinion, was a major miracle. Unfortunately, they will scar. Especially the brand. A bigger problem was the burn. The burn involved all layers of the skin and caused permanent tissue damage. The fat and tissue were both burnt away but luckily there was no damage done to the bone. He probably won't have much feeling in the area of the burn for a while, possibly forever."

Dr. Kyle paused for a moment and let the information sink in then he continued, "We found traces of Dilaudid in his system so we are unable to give him any pain medication without letting his system being cleared first. The bullet from Dr. Reid's gunshot wound missed anything important and we were able to patch that up easily. Our biggest concern right now is his right lung and blood loss. Apparently, one of his broken ribs punctured his lung when he moved it the wrong way. We were able to fix that up pretty nicely but he'll have to be on a ventilator to help him breathe for a few days. He lost quite a bit of blood during the whole thing and we'll be giving him transfusions regularly for the next couple days. Other than that, he has a few bumps and bruises but I expect him to make a full recovery."

The team was quiet for a moment before Hotch asked, "Can we see him?"

"Not now. He's in the recovery room. I'll tell him you're here when he wakes up and if he's up to visitors then you can see him," Dr. Kyle said.

"Thank you," Morgan replied.

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><p>He ran, his legs never ceasing to stop their constant cycle of motion, his mind never straying from his single thought:<p>

_Run._

His lungs were on fire and his heart was about to beat out of his chest. It was a strange sensation, he discovered, being so excruciatingly pained but unable to stop moving. His bones were made of lead, but some unknown energy forced them to continue to work with his strained muscles and have him continue through the shadows. His eyes only placed on the figure, the ominous mysteries of the woods leering at him from behind and above.

"Spencer…. Spencer," a ghostly voice chanted from the figure he was chasing.

"Wait! WAIT!" Reid called out after the figure. He didn't know why he had to catch them; he just knew if he didn't, very bad things would happen.

"Spencer…" the voice called again as the figure surged through the forest.

"Wait… Please!" Reid felt his muscles giving out and his pace was slowing. _No, no, no! _

Reid stopped running and gasped for air. His body was on fire, as if someone poured liquid heat down his throat. The whole world around him was tilting in an odd fashion and he fought the urge to puke.

"Spencer…" the voice said again. Reid looked around frantically, looking for the owner of the voice but come up with nothing. He had lost her.

Suddenly, the air was filled with an ear splitting scream.

Reid gasped and whirled around in the direction the scream had come from. He began walking hesitantly in that direction as the scream died down to a constant whimpering sound.

"Hello?" Reid called to the trees in a quiet voice.

"Spencer!" the voice screamed and Reid was sure it was female.

"Where are you?" he shouted up into the heavens.

"Spencer!" the female voice screamed again, yet it was coming closer. Reid spun around and stared into the tall oaks, looking for anyone. Anything.

"Spencer?" a voice whispered into his ear from behind him. Reid gasped in surprise and twisted around to see the figure behind him.

Seaver stood there, a single bullet hole right between her eyes. A thin trail of blood made its way down the side of her face from the wound. She smiled sweetly at him while he stared in horror at her.

"Why didn't you save me, Spencer?" she asked, "Why?"

Suddenly, Seaver's body began twitching violently and she let out yet another scream. Reid screamed along with her, in fear and in complete shock at what was happening. Seaver's body fell to the ground and melted into a fine, black dust.

Reid stared at the spot where her body used to lay. The black dust suddenly began to spread across the ground, eating up any life in its way. Reid stood frozen to the spot before turning on his heel and running in the other direction.

He could feel the earth falling away behind him as he ran away from the darkness. Reid's body began to slow as the darkness began to speed up. It traveled its way around Reid's ankles and yanked him down onto the ground.

"NO!" Reid screamed and tried to kick the darkness off of his body. But it was no use. The darkness spread around his body, swallowing him up.

Falling.

Falling.

Falling.

...

Reid opened his eyes.

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><p><strong>For those confused, Reid was dreaming and at the very end he woke up. <strong>

**Please review!**


	22. Bitter Revenge, Sweet Tragedy

**Author's Note!**

**OHMAIGAWD! This is the VERY LAST CHAPTER! *tear* I had planned on there being two more chapters, but I was impatient on ending this story. So, BAM! THE ENDING! Thank you all for sticking around for the journey and I hope the ending meets up to your expectations! Enjoy!**

**I don't own Criminal Minds nor the chatacters. All mistakes are my own. Slight language and spoilers.**

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><p>Dr. Spencer Reid walked into the BAU bull pin with the first real smile on his face since the incident. It's been almost a year but he still relives those days every night when he closes his eyes. Each one of the team members had a small (or rather large) part of them die after those four days in captivity.<p>

After he had woken up in the hospital, the team had given him the complete summary of what happened over the previous week since he couldn't even remember half of it. Michael and Nicole Starson had grown up in London, England until they were in their teens. Then their parents had moved them to the U.S. Their parents, both incredibly sadistic and delusional, went on a killing spree. They killed thirty-seven people before the BAU stopped them.

The parents decided to go out with a bang; they blew up the house they were taking refuge in, killing themselves and four cops. The Starson kid's bounced foster home to foster home, plotting their revenge on the BAU. When Michael Starson hit twenty-eight, he took Nicole and bought an abandon warehouse and continued their planning.

Starson paid Benny Cole and Gordon Smetter to stalk the present day members of the BAU team; which consisted of Aaron Hotchner, David Rossi, Derek Morgan, Emily Prentiss, Spencer Reid, and Ashley Seaver. Starson paid off the sheriff and one of the officers of Tampa PD to help him out. $10,000,000, each.

Starson killed the original three victims to create a pattern and the sheriff (working under Starson) requested the BAU team to come out and investigate. The BAU happily complied. Starson shut down is small home business to create what they called a "stressor". It all worked out perfectly; the whole thing looked like a perfect little case.

Starson called in to the police station and gave the false tip to go to the house previously owned by his parents. He had the sheriff go into the BAU computer system and get all kinds of dirt up on the agents.

When the rest of the station figured out that something went wrong with the raid, they sent eight officers out. All they found was two dead of their own and no BAU team. And no third officer. The next day, local PD found a car containing the dead body of the officer, on the side of a road in Montana.

They were able to pull a partial finger print off of the officer's broken glasses. The print matched that of the sheriff and the station brought him in for questioning. After two days of work, they were able to crack him and he told them about Starson and how Starson paid him off.

Garcia wasn't able to find any recent properties that Starson owned and they had yet come to another dead end. And then she got that phone call. Oh, that beloved phone call. She tracked them to the warehouse Starson had bought under a fake name and sent the whole police station out to get them.

They found the dead bodies of Ashley Seaver, Benny Cole, and Michael Starson. And the severely injured body of one Spencer Reid. Gordon Smitten was sentenced to life in prison but ate his own gun before they even sent him there.

Reid now walked with a permanent limp on his left leg from the burn. It wasn't very noticeable unless you constantly watched him walk. He still talked with a slight stutter and the doctors said that it may be a permanent side-effect of all the electric shock. He never took off his shirt in front of anyone. Not that he ever really did, before. But he was even more self-conscious about his chest; now that it was covered with the faint lines of where the blade met flesh and the outline of a cross above his bellybutton.

Hotch and Morgan didn't seem as physically scathed as the rest, but they sure as hell were emotionally damaged. They both constantly blamed themselves for what had happened there. But they both worked past the guilt and used that to become better profilers. A better people.

Prentiss stayed to work at the Bauru with Morgan, Hotch, and Reid, but was more withdrawn inside herself. She hardly joked or smiled anymore. She was still haunted by the feeling of Starson inside her and the death of Seaver. She had secretly blamed herself for Seaver's death. She had been so cruel to her in her last hours and that, in itself, was almost enough to send Prentiss over the edge.

Rossi retired after the kidnapping, claiming he was too old for all of it. Strauss had said he could continue to work as a profiler, but just not out in the field. But that wasn't enough for Rossi. The team visited him for the weekly "family dinner" on Friday nights whenever the team wasn't on a case. Rossi didn't let his lack of fingers get in the way of his life and Reid admired him for that.

The following months after the kidnapping were tough for Reid. The monster inside would bust its ugly head in Reid and, surprisingly, Reid let it. He felt it was easier to let the monster take control of his life and let him just tag along for the ride. But after four months of letting the monster take control, Hotch fired him.

BAM. BAM.

"Reid, I'm sorry. You're fired."

The words stilled echoed through his head. That was when he decided that this had been going on for too long. He got help, went to meetings, and the team had been there for him, too. After two months of complete hell, he locked the monster back down in its cage. It was still inside of him, yes. But it was now locked away. Deep, deep, inside him.

Reid had begged Hotch to give him his job back and Hotch eventually talked Strauss into letting Reid back on the team.

Reid was probably the most effected, emotionally, by the kidnapping. He didn't even remember most of what happened, but he dreamed about it every night. He wasn't sure which parts of the dream were memories or his imagination going wild. But, honestly, he didn't want to know. Nobody had the heart to tell him the Starson shot Seaver because of Reid for they believed he didn't remember it. But he did. And he did blame himself. If he had only kept the monster on a short leash and made it shut up.

But slowly, day by day, the team was healing. But none of them could deny that parts of them died after those four days. Starson may be dead, but he still won in the end. It was a bitter revenge, but a sweet tragedy.

_The End_

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><p><strong>BAM!<strong>

**Ah, I hope that was a good ending. I'm usually not so good at them. Thank you so much to Darkus Starlara, reina13, Narriel, Love Reid, CBloom2, jenny crum, Nyu1204, etpenusee, Elfears112, WritingToSurvive44, Doctor's Other Companion, TruthBehindTheEyes, and all of the others who read my story. YOU GUYS ROCK! **

**Please Review this chapter and check in on my work. I think I'ma start writing a vampire!Reid fic but not now. I think I'm going to stick to Oneshots or small fics for a while just 'cause there easier to write. I never realized how commited you have to be to write a full-length fic lol xD The vampire!Reid fic will definatly be a full-length story (or two ;) ) so it may be awhile before I start it. Or I might even start it tomorrow. I dunno, I extremely bi-polar like that lol. Anyways, review. Read my stuff (XxxLEVITYxxX) and well... Keep on torturing Reid! Lol Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed. :D **

**XxxLEVITYxxX**


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